Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Leeches are segmented parasitic or predatory worms that comprise the subclass Hirudinea within the phylum Annelida.They are closely related to the oligochaetes, which include the earthworm, and like them have soft, muscular segmented bodies that can lengthen and contract.
A jar for keeping medicinal leeches Hirudo medicinalis, a medicinal leech, attached to the skin. A leech collector, leech gatherer, or leech finder was a person occupied with procuring medicinal leeches, which were in growing demand in 19th-century Europe. Leeches were used in bloodletting but were not easy for medical practitioners to obtain ...
The price of leeches varied between one penny and threepence halfpenny each. In 1832 leeches accounted for 4.4% of the total hospital expenditure. The hospital maintained an aquarium for leeches until the 1930s. [15] The use of leeches began to become less widespread towards the end of the 19th century. [5]
Hirudinea, whose name means "leech-shaped" and whose best known members are leeches. [8] Marine species are mostly blood-sucking parasites, mainly on fish, while most freshwater species are predators. [13] They have suckers at both ends of their bodies, and use these to move rather like inchworms. [15]
Back of Macrobdella decora – note the row of orange dots down the middle and the two sets of black ones on the sides.. Macrobdella decora is a medium-sized leech, growing between 5 and 8.5 cm (2.0 and 3.3 in) long, and weighing from 1.48 to 3.69 grams (0.052 to 0.130 oz).
Listen and subscribe to our podcast: Apple Podcasts | Spotify WALKER, Minn. — Minnesota's third-largest lake has a namesake only an angler could love: the leech. Earthworm's ugly aquatic cousin.
Hirudo is a genus of leeches of the family Hirudinidae. It was described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae. [2] The two well-accepted species within the genus are: [3] Hirudo medicinalis Linnaeus, 1758; Hirudo nipponia Whitman, 1886
Commonly known as jawed land leeches, these annelids are known from subtropical and tropical regions around the Indian and Pacific Ocean. [1] Well-known Haemadipsidae are for example the Indian Leech ( Haemadipsa sylvestris ) and the yamabiru or Japanese Mountain Leech ( Haemadipsa zeylanica ).