Abstract

In the course of the present study 28 species of the genus Pseudolycoriella Menzel & Mohrig, 1998 from New Zealand were described as new to science: Pseudolycoriella aotearoa sp. n., Psl. dagae sp. n., Psl. dentitegmenta sp. n., Psl. fiordlandia sp. n., Psl. gonotegmenta sp. n., Psl. hauta sp. n., Psl. huttoni sp. n., Psl. jaschhofi sp. n., Psl. jejunella sp. n., Psl. kaikoura sp. n., Psl. maddisoni sp. n., Psl. mahanga sp. n., Psl. nahenahe sp. n., Psl. orite sp. n., Psl. plicitegmenta sp. n., Psl. porehu sp. n., Psl. porotaka sp. n., Psl. puhihi sp. n., Psl. raki sp. n., Psl. robustotegmenta sp. n.,Psl. subtilitegmenta sp. n., Psl. sudhausi sp. n., Psl. teo sp. n., Psl. tewaipounamu sp. n., Psl. tuakana sp. n., Psl. wernermohrigi sp. n., Psl. whakahara sp. n., and Psl. whena sp. n. Pseudolycoriella cavatica (Skuse, 1888), a widely distributed species, was recorded from New Zealand for the first time, and recognised as a senior synonym of Spathobdella setigera Hardy, 1960 syn. n. Apart from Psl. kaikoura and Psl. cavatica all New Zealand Pseudolycoriella species group in four different clusters: the Psl. bispina complex, the Psl. jejuna complex, the Psl. macrotegmenta complex, and the Psl. zealandica complex. The monophyly of those four species complexes was confirmed by a genetic analysis based on two mitochondrial genes (COI and 16S) and one nuclear gene (28S). A key to the species is given.