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Blood-sucking leeches use their anterior suckers to connect to hosts for feeding. Once attached, they use a combination of mucus and suction to stay in place while they inject hirudin into the hosts' blood. In general, blood-feeding leeches are non host-specific, and do little harm to their host, dropping off after consuming a blood meal. Some ...
Hirudo verbana feeds on blood (hematophagy). 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.
Well-known Haemadipsidae are for example the Indian Leech (Haemadipsa sylvestris) and the yamabiru or Japanese Mountain Leech (Haemadipsa zeylanica). Members of the family feed on blood, except Idiobdella which has adapted to eat small snails. [1] The other notable group of jawed blood-sucking leeches are the aquatic Hirudinidae.
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]
The leeches engorge themselves with blood before mating. One or two months after feeding, the leeches produce spongy cocoons, which are pale yellow and elliptical in shape. About another month later, the young, only 20 to 22 millimetres (0.79 to 0.87 in) long, emerge.
Hirudin is a naturally occurring peptide in the salivary glands of blood-sucking leeches (such as Hirudo medicinalis) that has a blood anticoagulant property. [2] This is essential for the leeches' habit of feeding on blood, since it keeps a host's blood flowing after the worm's initial puncture of the skin.
The family Glossiphoniidae contains one of the world's largest species of leech, the giant Amazon leech, which can grow up to 45 cm in length. [12] Many species show extended parental care, keeping eggs in nests or pouches and caring for and feeding the young. [2] [13] They feed on both vertebrate and invertebrate animals. [4]
Hematophagy (sometimes spelled haematophagy or hematophagia) is the practice by certain animals of feeding on blood (from the Greek words αἷμα haima "blood" and φαγεῖν phagein "to eat"). Since blood is a fluid tissue rich in nutritious proteins and lipids that can be taken without great effort, hematophagy is a preferred form of ...