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Such leeches are often ambush predators that lie in wait until they can strike prey with the proboscises in a spear-like fashion. [39] Predatory leeches feed on small invertebrates such as snails, earthworms and insect larvae. The prey is usually sucked in and swallowed whole.
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]
During a blood meal, a leech rhythmically contracts its muscles to draw blood from a host animal into the crop for storage. It can consume over five times its own weight in blood in one feeding. Once satiated, a leech detaches from its host. Hirudo verbana uses anticoagulants when it feeds, so its bite wounds continue bleeding for some time ...
The volume of blood consumed at any one time is much smaller than is typical for the European medicinal leech, but L. nilotica may stay in place for several weeks, feeding at intervals. [ 4 ] Limnatis nilotica is periodically reported as affecting humans and livestock, entering the host through the mouth, nose, and occasionally through the eye ...
Haementeria ghilianii is a species of leech in the Glossiphoniidae family, comprising freshwater proboscis-bearing leeches. Colloquially, they are known as the Amazon giant leech . Following its initial description in 1849, additional details were provided based on specimens from French Guiana in 1899, after which the species was largely ...
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
Terrestrial leeches primarily feed on mammals, though the New Zealand species have adapted to rely on birds. The Open Bay Islands leech feeds primarily on the feet of nesting seabirds, especially Fiordland penguins (Eudyptes pachyrhynchus). Leeches are able to ingest several times their body weight in blood, and can take months to digest it. [4]
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 ...