401376Hirudo medicinalisLower Risk/near threatened (LR/nt)<i>Hirudo medicinalis</i> Linnaeus, 1758brGelaouenndeBlutegelbehandlungenMedicinal leechesHirudo medicinalisfrHirudo medicinalisfrSangsue médicinalefrSangsue officinaleltMedicininė dėlėnlMedicinale bloedzuigernlMedicinale bloedzuigernoBlodigleruГирудотерапияukЄвропейська медична п'явкаGrzimek, Dr. H.C. Bernard. 1974. Grzinek's Animal Life Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. Van Nostrand Reinhold co., NY.780917809325419false1Sawyer, Roy T. 1986. Leech Biology and Behaviour. Vol 1-2. Clarendon Press, Oxford.781017810325419false1Grzimek, Dr. H.C. Bernard. 1974. Grzinek's Animal Life Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. Van Nostrand Reinhold co., NY.7809178091075232false1Sawyer, Roy T. 1986. Leech Biology and Behaviour. Vol 1-2. Clarendon Press, Oxford.7810178101075232false1Grzimek, Dr. H.C. Bernard. 1974. Grzinek's Animal Life Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. Van Nostrand Reinhold co., NY.7809178091139070false1Sawyer, Roy T. 1986. Leech Biology and Behaviour. Vol 1-2. Clarendon Press, Oxford.7810178101139070false1Leeches feed on blood. Having attached itself to the host animal, it pierces the skin and injects an anaesthetic to hide the pain of its bite so that the host does not find the leech and remove it, and an anticoagulant chemical, which prevents the host's blood from clotting whilst the leech feeds. The length of time a leech may feed seems to vary. One surveyor, as an experiment, allowed a leech to feed on him and it fed for 83 minutes. Another, presumably less-hungry individual, fed for just 25 minutes. During a meal, it may extract 15 millilitres of blood, which can increase the size of the leech by anything up to eleven times its normal body dimensions. A leech's meal can sustain it for over six months, but it may also have to wait many months between feeds. During this time, they can digest their own body tissue to avoid starvation. Leeches find their host animals by detecting disturbance in the water, and they can prey on small creatures as well as large. A frog or a newt, for example, can die from excessive blood-loss following an attack by a leech. Leeches may also behave as predators on some species of fish such as sticklebacks, as well as on great-crested newts and marsh frogs.</p><p>Leeches are often found in the nests of birds such as moorhens, and seem to use them as shelter as well as finding a food source. Dismantling old nests can be a method of surveying for leeches. The eggs are laid in a spongy cocoon on damp ground and, at Dungeness in Kent, they are associated with the roots of willowherb. On nearby Walland Marsh, the eggs have been found in damp turf on close-grazed sheep pasture. Humans are susceptible to parasitism by leeches but, apart from feelings of disgust, most suffer no ill effects. However, medicinal leeches have been used for removing 'bad blood' from human patients for hundreds of years. Although this practice fell into abeyance by the beginning of the 20th century, leeches are once again being used to restore blood circulation following tissue grafts. Leech saliva may also prove helpful in the future, too, as it apparently contains antibiotics as well as anticoagulants that may prove useful in surgery.afe6f816f114bdc9ab6fe5f776635f6f2615910WildscreenCopyright Wildscreen 2003-2008ARKiveCopyrightCopyright Wildscreen 2003-2008. Some rights reservedhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/SupplierARKivehttp://www.arkive.org/5978arkiveLocationSource URLView original data objecthttp://www.arkive.org/medicinal-leech/hirudo-medicinalis/CitationEnglishcc-by-nc-sa 3.0Texthttp://content8.eol.org/content_large.jpghttp://content9.eol.org/content_medium.jpghttp://content10.eol.org/content_small.jpg13290301302267232704204129783328662512953009717226298227131AnimaliaNOT EVALUATEDAnimalia36AnnelidaNOT EVALUATEDAnnelida37ClitellataNOT EVALUATEDClitellata40ArhynchobdellidaNOT EVALUATEDArhynchobdellida45HirudinidaeNOT EVALUATEDHirudinidae52318HirudoNOT EVALUATEDHirudo401376Hirudo medicinalisLower Risk/near threatened (LR/nt)<i>Hirudo medicinalis</i> Linnaeus, 1758Portland State University, MA Education
7klansBA Physics - Johns Hopkins University
MS Education - Johns Hopkins University
ME Engineering Physics - University of Virginia
10peterPh.D., University of Bristol (1976)
D.Sc., Queen's University, Belfast (1990)
11paddyAsst. Project Manager, Antarctic Invertebrates, Smithsonian Institution
Visiting Scientist, Chemicals Affecting Insect Behavior Lab, US Agricultural Research Service, 2005-2006
Hammock, J., Vinyard, B., Dickens, J. 2007. Response to host plant odors and aggregation pheromone by larvae of the Colorado potato beetle on a servosphere. Arthropod-Plant Interactions, 1(1):27-35
PhD, Biological Oceanography, Massachussetts Institute of Technology/Woods Hole Oceangraphic Institution, 200520470jhammockUniversity of Michigan, PhD 1997
Thesis: Social behavior and vocal communication of American Crows (Corvus brachyrhynchos)
Member of Ecological Society of America, Entomological Society of America.25567csparr33422mstuderEOL Species Pages Coordinator, Ph. D. in Entomology, University of Arizona 1999, Diploma in Biology, Freie Universität Berlin 198935200KatjaWilliam Miller, PhD
Assistant Professor
Baker University
Dept. of Biology
PO Box 65
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66006-0065
35243WMiller36197MarthaTestuserfaculty, Department of Biology
University of Miami
Coral Gables, Fl 33124
AAAS, ICRS, Sigma Xi
http://www.bio.miami.edu/Fac/Sealey.html38707ksealeyEmeritus Fellow, Trinity College Dublin
Holdich, Catherine, David M., Noel, Pierre Y., Reynolds, Julian D. and Haffner, Patrick (eds) (2006). Atlas of crayfish in Europe. Museum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris, 187 pages. Patrimoines naturels, 64.
Hudson, Anne V. and Reynolds, Julian D. (1984). Distribution of Irish intertidal Talitridae. Bulletin of the Irish biogeographical Society, 8, 63-76.
Reynolds, Julian D. (1976). Occurrence of the fresh-water Bryozoan, Cristatella mucedo Cuvier, in British Columbia. Syesis, 9, 365-366.
Smyth, Thomas and Reynolds, Julian D. (1995). Survival ability of statoblasts of freshwater Bryozoa found in Renvyle Lough, County Galway. Biology and Environment: Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 95B (1), 65-68.
Wickenberg, Maria and Reynolds, Julian D. (2002). A recent Irish record of the woodlouse Acaeroplastes melanurus (Budde-Lund, 1885) (Isopoda: Porcellionidae), considered to be extinct in the British Isles. Bulletin of the Irish Biogeographical Society, 26, 60-63.39544jrynoldsAffiliated with EOL Species Pages Group39552lshapiroCurator of marine invertebrates, National Museums Northern Ireland (Ulster Museum)
Author Sponges of the British Isles - A colour guide and working document, 1992 Edition. Ackers, R.G., Moss, D. & Picton, B. E. 1992. Marine Conservation Society, UK. Revised and extended, 2007, Bernard Picton, Christine Morrow & Rob van Soest. PDf and website40160BernardPicton> Research Scientist, Illinois Natural History Survey (INHS), Champaign (38 yrs);
> curator/collections manager - INHS Annelida Collection (~350,000 specimens);
> member, North American Benthological Society (NABS)(1973-present), serving on NABS Taxonomic Certification Comm., Literature Review Comm. (Annelida);
> American Fisheries Soc. Comm. on Common and Scientific Names (1989-present);
> Associate Editor, Journal Megadrilogica;
> ITIS steward, for oligochaetes;
> recently publ. papers:
a) 2008. Martin, P., E. Martinez-Ansemil, A. Pinder, T. Timm, and M.J. Wetzel. Global diversity of oligochaetous clitellates (“Oligochaeta”; Clitellata) in freshwater. Pp. 117-127, In E. V. Balian, C. Lévêque, H. Segers & K. Martens, eds. Freshwater Animal Diversity Assessment. Hydrobiologia 595(1).
b) 2008. Erséus, C., M.J. Wetzel, and L. Gustavsson. ICZN rules – a farewell to Tubificidae (Annelida, Clitellata). Zootaxa 1744: 66-68.
c) 2008. Reynolds, J.W. and M.J. Wetzel. 2008. Terrestrial Oligochaeta (Annelida: Clitellata) in North America, including Mexico, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and Bermuda. Megadrilogica 12(12): 167-208.
> homepage (with links to many others I maintain:
[http://www.inhs.uiuc.edu/~mjwetzel/hp.home.html]
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