Macrobdella decora
| Macrobdella decora | |
|---|---|
| |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Annelida |
| Clade: | Pleistoannelida |
| Clade: | Sedentaria |
| Class: | Clitellata |
| Subclass: | Hirudinea |
| Order: | Arhynchobdellida |
| Family: | Macrobdellidae |
| Genus: | Macrobdella |
| Species: | M. decora
|
| Binomial name | |
| Macrobdella decora (Say, 1824)
| |
| Synonyms | |
| |
Macrobdella decora, also known as the North American medicinal leech,[1] is a species of freshwater leech. Found in much of eastern North America in freshwater habitats, M. decora is both a parasite of vertebrates, including humans, and an aquatic predator of eggs, larvae, and other invertebrates.
Description
[edit]General appearance
[edit]Macrobdella decora is a medium-sized leech, growing between 5 and 9 cm (2.0 and 3.5 in) long, although it has been reported growing as big as 15 centimetres (5.9 in) long. It has a dark green, brown or olive-green back with a line of 20 or so small orange or red dots down the middle, and a corresponding set of black dots on its side. Its underbelly is reddish with black patches dispersed across it.[2]: 67 [3][4] All leeches have 32 segments.[5]
Head
[edit]The head of M. decora is rounded and has ten ocelli: one pair between segments two and three; a second pair on segment three; a third on four; a fourth on six; and a fifth and final pair on segment nine.[6]: 138
Diet
[edit]Macrobdella decora is both parasitic and predaceous. It sucks the blood of many vertebrates, using its teeth to pierce the host's skin, including humans but also amphbians, fish, turtles, wading birds, and cattle. It also hunts voraciously, and eats oligochaete worms, snails, amphibian eggs, the larvae of insects, and even other individuals of its own species.[2]: 67–8
Distribution and habitat
[edit]
The most widely distributed Macrobdella species, M. decora is found in North America east of the Rocky Mountains in southern Canada and the neighbouring United States. There is, however, one isolated population in Mexico, in the state of Nuevo León.[7]: 587 Macrobdella decora is a freshwater species that is found in slow-moving water bodies such as streams, temporary ponds, ditches, and wetlands.[2][8][9]
Classification
[edit]Macrobdella decora was originally placed in the genus Hirudo by Thomas Say, who described it in 1824 in an appendix to a book about an expedition up the Minnesota River.[3] When Addison Emery Verrill erected the genus Macrobdella in 1872, he transferred Say's species into his new genus Macrobdella.[6]
Conservation
[edit]In Ontario, NatureServe lists the species as "Secure".[10]
See also
[edit]
Media related to Macrobdella decora at Wikimedia Commons
References
[edit]- ^ McClure, Emily Ann; Nelson, Michael C.; Lin, Amy; Graf, Joerg (2021-04-27). Johnson, Karyn N. (ed.). "Macrobdella decora : Old World Leech Gut Microbial Community Structure Conserved in a New World Leech". Applied and Environmental Microbiology. 87 (10). doi:10.1128/AEM.02082-20. ISSN 0099-2240. PMC 8117757. PMID 33674439.
- ^ a b c Sawyer, Roy T. (1972). "North American freshwater leeches, exclusive of the Piscicolidae, with a key to all species". Illinois biological monographs. 46. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. doi:10.5962/bhl.title.53881. OCLC 304005.
- ^ a b Keating, William Hypolitus; Keating, William Hypolitus; Long, Stephen H.; Schweinitz, Lewis David von (1824). Narrative of an expedition to the source of St. Peter's river, Lake Winnepeek, Lake of the Woods, &c., performed in the year 1823, ... under the command of Stephen H. Long. Vol. 2. Philadelphia: H. C. Carey & I. Lea. p. 268.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link) - ^ Govedich, Fredric R.; Bain, Bonnie A.; et al. (2001). "Annelida (Clitellata): Oligochaeta, Branchiobdellida, Hirudinida, and Acanthobdellida" (PDF). Ecology and Classification of North American Freshwater Invertebrates. Elsevier. ISBN 978-0-12-690647-9.
- ^ Kuo, Dian-Han; Lai, Yi-Te (4 November 2018). "On the origin of leeches by evolution of development". Development, Growth & Differentiation. 61 (1): 43–57. doi:10.1111/dgd.12573. PMID 30393850. S2CID 53218704.
and a fixed number (32) of segments
- ^ a b Verrill, A. E.; Silliman, Benjamin (1872). Dana, James D.; Silliman, Benjamin (eds.). "Brief Contributions to Zoölogy from the Museum of Yale College. No. XVII.—Descriptions of North American fresh-water Leeches". The American Journal of Science and Arts. ser.3:v.3=no.13-18 (1872). New-Haven: S. Converse.
- ^ Phillips, Anna J.; Salas-Montiel, Ricardo; Kvist, Sebastian; Oceguera-Figueroa, Alejandro (2019-08-15). "Phylogenetic Position and Description of a New Species of Medicinal Leech from the Eastern United States". Journal of Parasitology. 105 (4): 587. doi:10.1645/18-119. ISSN 0022-3395.
- ^ Garcia de Jesus, Erin I. "This Smithsonian Scientist is on a Mission to Make Leeches Less Scary". www.smithsonianmag.com. Retrieved 2024-11-29.
- ^ "Freshwater leech (Macrobdella decora) – Lloyd Center for the Environment, Dartmouth MA". Retrieved 2024-11-29.
- ^ NatureServe. "Macrobdella decora". NatureServe Explorer. Arlington, Virginia.