Hirudinea 203 



other flat glass or clay dishes but only 2 or 3 to 5 or 6, according to size, 

 should be placed in a vessel. Most of these normally feed on the blood 

 of snapping or other water turtles (the last named species on frogs and 

 toads) and a supply of these animals should be available. A meal at 

 intervals of a month or two is sufficient, and it is better to prevent the 

 leeches from becoming too heavily gorged. A meal of blood in early 

 spring is usually followed closely by egg-laying, and often reproduction 

 may be initiated during the winter by placing the leeches in a moderately 

 warm room and permitting them to feed on a turtle or frog. 



The Erpobdellidae (various species of Erpobdella, Dina, and Nephelop- 

 sis) are equally easy to keep if certain precautions are taken. As they 

 are much more active than most of the Glossiphonidae, they require more 

 spacious quarters and the vessels should be securely covered to prevent 

 them from escaping, particularly at night. These leeches are largely 

 nocturnal, predacious and incline to be amphibious. Consequently they 

 often leave the water at night in search of earthworms and similar food. 

 They are also scavengers and will feed on dead or wounded fish, frogs, 

 etc. In confinement they are best fed with small earthworms, the larger 

 aquatic Oligochaeta, insect larvae, or finely chopped fresh meat. Plants 

 are usually unnecessary for leeches of this group, but the water should be 

 kept clean, especially after feeding. Plenty of small pieces of stone, bits 

 of bark, and dead leaves should be provided as places of concealment and 

 for the attachment of egg capsules, which are flat, purse-shaped struc- 

 tures, each containing several eggs attached by a flat side to any firm 

 substratum. Egg capsules are produced in great numbers during the 

 spring and summer. 



The true blood sucking and medicinal leeches and the related so-called 

 horse leeches, belong to the family Hirudidae. These include the largest 

 of our freshwater leeches. During the middle decades of the last century 

 when leeches were employed medicinally in great numbers they were 

 extensively cultivated in so-called leech farms, especially in France.* 



On a small scale these leeches may be raised in tanks or aquaria or 

 even in earthenware jars. The Indian medicinal leech (Hirudinaria) is 

 cultured largely in this way, the reproducing leeches being placed in a 

 jar containing some wet clay, the egg capsules removed daily and placed 

 in moist clay cups until the young hatch when they are transferred to 

 water and after a time cautiously fed. Our American leeches of this type 

 (Macrobdella, Philobdella) are best kept in low-sided aquaria or tanks 

 with a sloping bank of sandy earth at one end and shallow water at the 

 other. A cover of thick moss on the earth is desirable, as well as some 



* The technique of leech culture was elaborately described in many books published 

 mostly in France, of which Ebrard — Novelle Monographic des Sangsues Medicinales, 1857, 

 is a good example. 



