ROE Be OON 4 Ele Cane Se ie MING Are tS: 
NPIS O Ie Ae 
By Tokio KaBurakl, Research Student, 
Imperial University, Tokyo. 
(From the Zoological Laboratory, The Museums, Cambridge.) 
A considerable number of accidents caused by the leech 
Limnatis mlotica (Savigny), which is well known under the term 
‘* Horse-leech,”’ exist in literature.! In the process of being swal- 
lowed, the leech attaches itself to the mouth, throat and nasal 
cavity of men and beasts, causing hemorrhage as well! as hinder- 
ing respiration. When it penetrates deeper the hemorrhage may 
sometimes be very serious and even fatal. 
IT owe to Dr. N. Annaidale of the Indian Museum the oppor- 
tunity of examining one specimen of leech, which seems to be 
identical with the species mentioned. The material was obtained, 
apparently at Quetta, Baluchistan, from the throat of an Austrian 
prisoner, who had been brought from Persia. In drinking from 
dirty pools in Persia, he sucked up six individuals, all of which 
had been at the back of his throat for eight days. This informa- 
tion comes from Capt. A. G. R. Hardwick, R.A.M.C., who has 
communicated it to Dr. Annandale. 
The specimen is of large size, measuring 85 mm. long, exclu- 
sive of the posterior sucker, by 16 mm. across, taken almost in 
front of the posterior fifth of the body, from which the trunk 
tapers more gradually to the anterior end than to the posterior. 
The trunk is subcylindrical, presenting on the ventral surface of its 
anterior end the sucker which is destitute of the three powerful 
jaws, and in this respect it is unlike the medical leech. The upper 
lip of the sucker is divided on its inferior surface into two lobes by 
a deep longitudinal groove. ‘The jaws are covered by papillae and 
provided with more than roo minute teeth. The posterior sucker, 
which is distinctly separated from the trunk by a constriction, is 
of a circular shape, the diameter being about 12 mm. 
The leech, being preserved in spirit, cannot be expected to 
have retained its original colour. The body is of a uniform brown- 
ish grey colour, without being traversed on the dorsal surface by 
any trace of such four black lines and a median yellow or green 
stripe as has been described by Blanchard.? Along each side, 
! Blanchard, R., Courtes notices sur les Hirudinées, 1. Bull. de la Soc. Zool. 
de France, XVI, 1891, p. 218. Hirudinées de I’Italie continentale et insulaire. 
Boll. Mus. Zool. Univ. di Torino, 1X, 1894, p.42. Masterman, E. W. G., Hiru- 
dinea as Human Parasites in Palestine. Parasitology, |, 1908, p. 282. 
2 See Blanchard, Joc. cit., 1894, p. 43. 
