Species: Erpobdella vilnensis (Liskiewicz, 1925) Geographic distribution. Palaearctic species. It is known from central to east Europe, widespread throughout Poland, Austria, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Slovenia and Latvia (Nesemann & Neubert 1999). The easternmost distribution records were from Kyrgyzstan (Jueg et al. 2013), until it was discovered in the East Kazakhstan, in this study. Irtysh River area: The Irtysh River (N52º19′17′′ / E76º53′22′′), the Peschanka River (N50º10′08′′ / E82º03′ 07'′), the Kyzylsu River (N50º06′ 14′/ E81º32′ 56'′), the Shulbinsk water reservoir (N50º22′53′′ / E81º06′13′′; N50º23′35′′ / E81º05′36′′), and the Bukhtarma water reservoir (N49º36′58′′ / E83º31′33′′; N49º37′01′′ / E83º34′18′′; N49º37′39′′ / E83º27′21′′), Lake Bolshoe (N50º43′16′′ / E79º40′49′′), and Lake Maloe (N50º43′45′′ / E79º40′15′′). Ecology. The preferred habitats were rocky substrates in the shallow zone of the water reservoirs. This is the most common erpobdellid species in mountain streams. FAMILY: HAEMOPIDAE Richardson, 1969 Species: Haemopis sanguisuga (Linnaeus, 1758) Geographic distribution. Palaearctic region. Irtysh River area: The Irtysh River (N52º16′52′′ / E76º56′06′′; N50º25′26′′ / E80º12′34′′). Ecology. This species was found in river floodplain. The horse-leech is a predator of aquatic and terrestrial invertebrates, with earthworms and mollusks as a basis of its feeding. FAMILY: PRAOBDELLIDAE Blanchard, 1894 Species: Limnatis paluda (Tennent, 1859) Synonymy: Haemopis paludum: Tennant, 1859; Limnatis paluda: Moore, 1927. Geographic distribution. India and Sri Lanka (Nesemann & Neubert 1999), Southeastern Kazakhstan (Nakano et al. 2015). Irtysh River area: Lake Bolshoe (N50º43′16′′ / E79º40′49′′). Ecology. Limnatis paluda is a temporal ectoparasite that lives only in shallow part of standing water bodies. This leech was first described from Sri Lanka and was stated to be a cattle leech there. Now it known as a parasite of humans and other large mammals.

Published as part of Kaygorodova, Irina A. & Fedorova, Lyudmila I., 2016, The first data on species diversity of leeches (Hirudinea) in the Irtysh River Basin, East Kazakhstan, pp. 287-290 in Zootaxa 4144 (2) on pages 289-290, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4144.2.10, http://zenodo.org/record/260946