Haemopis sanguisuga

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Haemopis sanguisuga
Haemopis-sanguisuga-pferdeegel.jpg
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Annelida
Clade: Pleistoannelida
Clade: Sedentaria
Class: Clitellata
Subclass: Hirudinea
Order: Arhynchobdellida
Family: Haemopidae
Genus: Haemopis
Species:
H. sanguisuga
Binomial name
Haemopis sanguisuga
Synonyms
  • Hirudo sanguisuga Linnaeus, 1758
  • Hirudo guloBraun, 1805
  • Hirudo voraxJohnson, 1816
  • Aulastomum gulo(Frič & Vávra, 1892)

Haemopis sanguisuga is a species of freshwater leech in the family Haemopidae. [1] [2] [3] It is commonly called the horse-leech, but that is due to the similarity of its appearance to the leech Limnatis nilotica , which sometimes enters the nasal cavities of livestock. Haemopis sanguisuga does not behave in this way. [4] Another synonym for this leech is Aulastomum gulo. [5]

Contents

Description

Haemopis sanguisuga can reach a length of 10 cm (4 in), a similar size to the medicinal leech Hirudo medicinalis , but can extend to a greater length when stretched out. The body is segmented; the upper surface is brownish-black, usually a solid colour but sometimes with streaks and spots, and the under surface is yellowish-grey or olive. There are two suckers, a small one at the anterior end and a larger one at the posterior end. There is a crescent-shaped grouping of five pairs of eyes on the head. [4]

Distribution and habitat

Haemopis sanguisuga is a freshwater leech and is found across most of Europe [1] [4] as well as in Asia. [6] Typical habitats are in shallow parts of lakes, ponds, ditches and slow-moving rivers. It may emerge onto the land, hiding under stones, and it tolerates slightly brackish water. [4] It can be found as far as 30 metres away from water.

Haemopis sanguisuga in a lab

Ecology

Haemopis sanguisuga moves by looping, attaching its front sucker to the substrate, drawing forward the back sucker and positioning it close to the front one, and then detaching the front sucker and extending its front end forward. It can also move by swimming. It has a few blunt teeth in two rows and is a predator rather than a blood-sucker. It feeds on insect larvae, fish eggs and fry, tadpoles, worms, other leeches, [4] and gastropods; [7] the prey is sucked in and swallowed whole. The leech sometimes emerges from the water to hunt for earthworms. [4] [7]

Like other leeches, Haemopis sanguisuga is a hermaphrodite. The testes mature first and the ovaries later in the organism's life. A pair of leeches will line up with the clitellar regions in contact, and sperm is passes by the one acting as male to the female gonopore. Some time later, several eggs are laid by the female, and these are wrapped in an albumin-filled cocoon that is secreted by the clitellum. [8] The cocoon is buried in damp earth close to the water's edge. When the eggs hatch, the juveniles that emerge are about 15 mm (0.6 in) in length. [4]

A parasitic diplomonad, Hexamita gigas , is sometimes found in the leech's gut. Most species of Hexamita infect vertebrates, and the only other known invertebrate hosts for this genus of flagellates are found among the cockroaches, such as the oriental cockroach (Blatta orientalis). [5]

Related Research Articles

<i>Rhynchobdellida</i> Order of annelids

Rhynchobdellida, the jawless leeches or freshwater leeches, are an order of aquatic leeches. Despite the common name "freshwater leeches", species are found in both sea and fresh water. They are defined by the presence of a protrusible proboscis instead of jaws, and having colourless blood. They move by "inchworming" and are found worldwide. The order contains 110 species, divided into 41 genera and three families. Members of the order range widely in length, usually between 7 and 40 mm. They are hermaphrodite. The order is not monophyletic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clitellata</span> Class of annelid worms

The Clitellata are a class of annelid worms, characterized by having a clitellum – the 'collar' that forms a reproductive cocoon during part of their life cycles. The clitellates comprise around 8,000 species. Unlike the class of Polychaeta, they do not have parapodia and their heads are less developed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Longnose sucker</span> Species of fish

The longnose sucker is a species of cypriniform freshwater fish in the family Catostomidae. It is native to North America from the northern United States to the top of the continent. It is also found in Russia in rivers of eastern Siberia, and this one of only two species of sucker native to Asia.

Erpobdella obscura is a freshwater ribbon leech common in North America. It is a relatively large leech and is commonly used as bait by anglers for walleye and other sport fish. In Minnesota, live bait dealers annually harvest over 45,000 kg of bait-leeches, raising concerns of over-harvest.

<i>Bithynia tentaculata</i> Species of gastropod

Bithynia tentaculata, common names the mud bithynia or common bithynia, or faucet snail is a relatively small species of freshwater snail with gills and an operculum, an aquatic prosobranch gastropod mollusk in the family Bithyniidae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leech</span> Parasitic or predatory annelid worms

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. Both groups are hermaphrodites and have a clitellum, but leeches typically differ from the oligochaetes in having suckers at both ends and ring markings that do not correspond with their internal segmentation. The body is muscular and relatively solid; the coelom, the spacious body cavity found in other annelids, is reduced to small channels.

Motobdella montezuma is a species of leech which is only found in Montezuma Well, central Arizona, United States. It is a nocturnal pelagic predator that feeds almost exclusively on the endemic amphipod Hyalella montezuma, which it detects using passive sonar and swallows whole.

<i>Cotesia glomerata</i> Species of wasp

Cotesia glomerata, the white butterfly parasite, is a small parasitoid wasp belonging to family Braconidae. It was described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 publication 10th edition of Systema Naturae.

<i>Hydrophilus piceus</i> Species of beetle

Hydrophilus piceus is a species of beetles in the family Hydrophilidae, the water scavenger beetles. This very large aquatic beetle is found in the Palearctic and is known by the common name great silver water beetle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Branchiobdellida</span> Order of annelids

Branchiobdellida is an order of freshwater leech-like clitellates that are obligate ectosymbionts or ectoparasites, mostly of astacoidean crayfish. They are found in the Northern Hemisphere and have a holarctic distribution in East Asia, the Euro-Mediterranean region and North and Central America, with the greatest species diversity being in North and Central America.

<i>Erpobdella octoculata</i> Species of leech

Erpobdella octoculata is a freshwater leech in the Erpobdellidae family. This species can be found in Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East.

Erpobdella punctata is a leech in the family Erpobdellidae. It is found in freshwater streams and ponds in many parts of North America.

<i>Acanthobdella peledina</i> Species of annelid worm

Acanthobdella peledina is a species of leech-like clitellate in the order Acanthobdellida. It feeds on the skin and blood of freshwater fishes in the boreal regions of northern Europe, Asia and North America.

<i>Piscicola geometra</i> Species of annelid worm

Piscicola geometra is a species of leech in the family Piscicolidae. It is an external parasite of marine, brackish and freshwater fishes. It was first described as Hirudo geometra by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in his Systema Naturae in 1758.

<i>Pontobdella muricata</i> Species of annelid (marine leech)

Pontobdella muricata is a species of marine leech in the family Piscicolidae. It is a parasite of fishes and is native to the northeastern Atlantic Ocean, the Baltic Sea, the North Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea.

<i>Barbronia weberi</i> Species of annelid worm

Barbronia weberi is a species of predatory freshwater leech in the family Salifidae. It is native to southeastern Asia but has spread to other parts of the world, including Australia, South America, southern Europe and the United States.

Alboglossiphonia heteroclita is a species of leeches belonging to the family Glossiphoniidae. It is distributed across the Holarctic region, in North America and Eurasia. The species is a predator, feeding on freshwater invertebrates, including gastropods, isopods, and certain oligochaetes. They employ a sit-and-wait hunting strategy, and are usually relatively immobile.

<i>Haemopis</i> Genus of leeches

Haemopis is a genus of leeches belonging to the family Haemopidae. The species of this genus are found in Eurasia and Northern America.

<i>Macrobdella decora</i> Species of leech

Macrobdella decora, also known as the North American medicinal leech, is a species of freshwater leech. It is found in much of eastern North America in freshwater habitats, although there is one disjunct population in northern Mexico. M. decora is both a parasite of vertebrates, including humans, and an aquatic predator of eggs, larvae, and other invertebrates.

References

  1. 1 2 "Haemopis sanguisuga (Linnaeus, 1758)". Fauna Europaea . Fauna Europaea Secretariat, Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin. Retrieved 26 August 2021.
  2. "Haemopis sanguisuga (Linnaeus, 1758)". WoRMS. World Register of Marine Species. 2021. Retrieved 26 August 2021.
  3. "Horse Leech - Haemopis sanguisuga". NatureSpot. Retrieved 17 November 2012.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Corolla, Jean-Pierre; Lecaplain, Benoît; Noël, Pierre; Sohier, Sandra & Kupfer, Michel (12 September 2019). "Haemopis sanguisuga (Linnaeus, 1758)" (in French). DORIS. Retrieved 12 August 2021.
  5. 1 2 Bishop, Ann (1933). "The morphology and division of Hexamita gigas n.sp. (Flagellata)1". Parasitology. 25 (2): 163–170. doi:10.1017/S0031182000019351.
  6. Farzali, Shabnam & Saglam, Naim (2020). "The status of the leech fauna (Annelida, Hirudinea) at the Eastern Region of Azerbaijan". Journal of Wildlife and Biodiversity. 4 (4): 40–52. doi:10.22120/JWB.2020.127647.1141.
  7. 1 2 Shikov, Evgenii V. (2011). "Haemopis sanguisuga (Linnaeus, 1758)(Hirudinea) – the first observation of a leech predation on terrestrial gastropods" (PDF). Folia Malacologica. 19 (2): 103–106. doi:10.2478/v10125-011-0016-5.
  8. Ruppert, Edward E.; Fox, Richard S. & Barnes, Robert D. (2004). Invertebrate Zoology, 7th Edition. Cengage Learning. pp. 477–478. ISBN   978-81-315-0104-7.