Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
[34] [36] The glossiphoniids brood their eggs, either by attaching the cocoon to the substrate and covering it with their ventral surface, or by securing the cocoon to their ventral surface, and even carrying the newly hatched young to their first meal. [37] When breeding, most marine leeches leave their hosts and become free-living in estuaries.
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 ...
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.
In the English Channel, small common sole may have one or two leeches on them while large fish may have forty or more of the parasites. [2] Adult leeches attached to the underside of fish lay eggs on the seabed in locations where the fish like to semi-bury themselves in the sediment; the eggs have stalks and are anchored to grains of sand.
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 ...
Earthworms store their partners' sperm in spermathecae ("sperm stores") and then the clitellum produces a cocoon that collects ova from the ovaries and then sperm from the spermathecae. Fertilization and development of earthworm eggs takes place in the cocoon. Leeches' eggs are fertilized in the ovaries, and then transferred to the cocoon.
[12] [1] The leeches lay their egg cocoons on the carapace of the crustaceans, sometimes in great numbers: one study found an average of 118 cocoons on 18 crabs. [11] Another related species, Myzobdella platensis, may be a true parasite of the blue crab. [12] Other animals affected by M. lugubris include shrimp, oysters, crayfish and prawns.
Pages in category "Leeches" The following 6 pages are in this category, out of 6 total. This list may not reflect recent changes. ...