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Leach (sometimes leech [1]) was a popular medieval sweetmeat (confection) consisting of a thick, jelly-like preserve which set hard enough to be sliced for serving. [2]The pastry consisted of sugar and flavourings such as almonds, dates, dried fruit, peel, and fruit extracts (such as rose water), sometimes spiced with ginger, aniseed, cinnamon and other spices or with milk added, and thickened ...
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.
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 ...
Listen and subscribe to our podcast: Apple Podcasts | Spotify WALKER, Minn. — Minnesota's third-largest lake has a namesake only an angler could love: the leech. Earthworm's ugly aquatic cousin.
Hirudinea, whose name means "leech-shaped" and whose best known members are leeches. [8] Marine species are mostly blood-sucking parasites, mainly on fish, while most freshwater species are predators. [13] They have suckers at both ends of their bodies, and use these to move rather like inchworms. [15]
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 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]
Macrobdella decora, also known as the North American medicinal leech, is a species of freshwater leech found in much of eastern North America in freshwater habitats, although there is one disjunct population in northern Mexico. M. decora is a parasite of vertebrates, including humans, and an aquatic predator of eggs, larvae, and other ...