How do Hirudo medicinalis reproduce?

Hirudo medicinalis is hermaphroditic, meaning it has both male and female sex organs that produce male and female gametes. During mating season, which typically runs through early June to August, leeches of reproductive maturity start producing sperm and eggs.

How do medicinal leeches reproduce?

Leeches inject hirudin, an anesthetic, to keep the hosts from feeling them break the skin. They also inject an anticoagulant to keep the blood from clotting so that they can feed. They are hermaphrodites, and reproduce through reciprocal fertilization, in which both leeches become impregnated at the same time.

How do jawed leeches reproduce?

Reproduction and development Leeches are protandric hermaphrodites, with the male reproductive organs, the testes, maturing first and the ovaries later.

What is the medical significance of the Hirudo medicinalis?

In medieval and early modern medicine, the medicinal leech (Hirudo medicinalis and its congeners H. verbana, H. troctina, and H. orientalis) was used to remove blood from a patient as part of a process to balance the humors that, according to Galen, must be kept in balance for the human body to function properly.

How does Hirudo medicinalis attach to its host?

Hirudo medicinalis is parasitic and the adults feed on the blood of mammals. It attaches to the host by means of its two suckers and bites through the skin of its victim.

How often does the Hirudo medicinalis Leech breed?

H. medicinalis breeds once during an annual season that spans June through August. It also remains fertile over a period of years,unlike most other leech species. The act of copulation takes place on land, where one leech attaches ventrally to one another by means of a mucus secretion.

How long does it take for Hirudo medicinalis eggs to hatch?

After about 14 days, the eggs hatch as fully formed minia­ture adults (Grz­imek, 1974; Sawyer 1986). Motil­ity is achieved both in land and water. Hirudo med­i­c­i­nalis moves in water by con­trac­tion of the lon­gi­tu­di­nal mus­cles of the body in a wave-like mo­tion which pro­pels it for­ward in the water.

How many Hirudo medicinalis are there in the UK?

They are particularly sparsely distributed in France and Belgium, and in the UK there may be as few as 20 remaining isolated populations (all widely scattered). The largest (at Lydd) is estimated to contain several thousand individuals; 12 of these areas have been designated Sites of Special Scientific Interest.