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Blood-sucking leeches use their anterior suckers to connect to hosts for feeding. Once attached, they use a combination of mucus and suction to stay in place while they inject hirudin into the hosts' blood. In general, blood-feeding leeches are non host-specific, and do little harm to their host, dropping off after consuming a blood meal. Some ...
Leeches are hermaphrodites, and mating may take place on or off the fish host, but in either case, the cocoon, usually containing a single egg, is deposited elsewhere, usually stuck to a stone or piece of vegetation, or even to the carapace of a crustacean. When the egg hatches, the juvenile leech has about a week to find a suitable fish host ...
Turtle leeches are a genus, Ozobranchus, of leeches (Hirudinea) that feed exclusively on the blood of turtles. [2] Only two species—Ozobranchus margoi and Ozobranchus branchiatus—are found in the Atlantic coast of the United States and the Gulf of Mexico. Little is known about these leeches due to difficulties in studying their sea turtle ...
Like other leeches, H. verbana has anterior and posterior suckers that allow it to attach to a range of substrates in both air and water. It can even attach to porous, air-permeable substrates. In the wild, this ability may be relevant for attaching to porous rocks or the furry skin of host animals.
Like other marine leeches, it feeds on its host's blood, but unlike most freshwater species, it does not drop off the fish after it has fed, instead remaining attached by its anterior sucker. In the juvenile leech, the remnants of each blood meal is visible through the transparent skin as a small red ball inside. [ 2 ]
Large adults can consume up to ten times their body weight in a single meal, with 5–15 mL being the average volume taken. [5] These leeches can live for up to a year between feedings. [6] Medicinal leeches are hermaphrodites that reproduce by sexual mating, laying eggs in clutches of up to 50 near (but not under) water, and in shaded, humid ...
Glossiphoniid leeches exhibit remarkable parental care, the most highly developed one among the known annelids. They produce a membranous bag to hold the eggs, which is carried on the underside. The young attach to the parent's belly after hatching and are thus ferried to their first meal. [6] Certain Glossiphoniidae parasitize amphibian species.
Arhynchobdellida, the proboscisless leeches, are a monophyletic order of leeches. They are defined by the lack of the protrusible proboscis that defines their sister taxon, the Rhynchobdellida . [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] Arhynchobdellida is a diverse order, compromising both aquatic and terrestrial , besides sanguivorous and predatory , leeches. [ 3 ]