LEECHES 



snails and clinging insects. Its body is very flat; its dorsal 

 surface is mottled, greenish spotted with yellow (Fig. ii8). 

 The eggs are laid in large gelatinous capsules which are at- 



Fig. ii8. — A common brook leech, Glossiphonia 

 complanata: i, dorsal; 2, with brood of young leeches 

 attached to ventral side. 



tached to the ventral surface where the young are later car- 

 ried (Fig. 118). 



Family Hirudinida 



Members of this family live in ponds and swimming holes. 

 Besides sucking blood they are greedily predacious upon aqua- 

 tic worms, larvae, insects, and each ether. They are powerful 

 swimmers, moving through the open water in undulating 

 curves. 







nr 



l:>\|{l'ij|lU 



Fig. 119. — Blood-sucker, Macrohdella decora: i, 

 dorsal; 2, ventral. 



Common blood-sucker, American medicinal leech, Macro- 

 bdella decora. — This and closely related species are the widely 



155 



