320 



LEECHES 



too much engaged to pull them off the leeches hang like bunches 

 of grapes round the ankles. Both Marshall and Davy mention 

 that during the march of troops in the mountains when the 

 Kandyans were in rebellion in 1818, the soldiers, and especially 

 the Madras Sepoys, with the pioneers and 

 coolies, suffered so severely from this cause 

 that numbers perished. 



One circumstance regarding these land- 

 leeches is remarkable and unexplained: they 

 are helpless without moisture, and in the hills 

 where they abound at all other times they 

 entirely disappear during long droughts; yet 

 reappear instantly at the very first fall of rain, 

 and in spots previously parched, where not one 

 was visible an hour before, a single shower is 

 sufficient to reproduce them in thousands. 

 Whence do they reappear! May they, like 

 rotifers, be dried up and preserved for an 

 indefinite period, resuming their vital activity 

 on the mere recurrence of moisture? " 



Similar reports come from travelers in other 

 tropical countries. Alfred Wallace encountered 

 land-leeches in Sumatra where he found them 

 infesting the leaves and herbage by the side 

 of the paths through the forests. At the 

 approach of a traveler as indicated by foot- 

 steps or a rustling of leaves, the leeches stretched 

 themselves out at full length and attached 

 themselves to any part of the passerby which 

 they happened to touch. Their presence and 

 ^he \ oss o f blood was seldom felt during the 



, . * 



japoni- excitement of walking, but a dozen or so had 

 2 ' to be picked off every evening. Dean C. 

 Worcester in his book on the Philippines 

 says " the moist earth swarmed with leeches which crawled 

 through my stockings and bit my ankles until my shoes were 

 soaked with blood." One species, H. japonica (Fig. 133), is 

 common in parts of Japan. The land-leech of Australia belongs to 

 a different genus, Philcemon. 



In any of the localities infested by land-leeches it is advisable 



FIG. 133. Japa- 



nese land-leech, 



/Au- 



(After Whitman.) 



