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The mid-gut and adjoining mycetomes (pouches), contain symbiotic bacteria which help with the digestion of blood, provide additional nutrients, and prevent the entry of pathogens. [ 5 ] [ 6 ] Leeches are hermaphrodite and pair up to impregnate each other by hypodermic injection. [ 6 ]
Glossiphoniidae are a family of freshwater proboscis-bearing leeches.These leeches are generally flattened, and have a poorly defined anterior sucker.Most suck the blood of freshwater vertebrates like amphibians, crocodilians and aquatic turtles, but some feed on invertebrates like oligochaetes and freshwater snails instead.
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.
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Cleaning symbiosis is a relationship between a pair of animals of different species, involving the removal and subsequent ingestion of ectoparasites, diseased and injured tissue, and unwanted food items from the surface of the host organism (the client) by the cleaning organism (the cleaner). [5]
Parasitism is a relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or in another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. [20] The parasite either feeds on the host, or, in the case of intestinal parasites, consumes some of its food.
The Piscicolidae are a family of jawless leeches in the order Rhynchobdellida that are parasitic on fish. They occur in both freshwater and seawater, have cylindrical bodies, and typically have a large, bell-shaped, anterior sucker with which they cling to their host. [3]
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]