Lake Maxinkuckee, Physical and Biological Survey 91 



The most usual food consists of small annelids, insects and 

 mollusks but blood will be taken from abraded surfaces of all 

 kinds of living and dead animals whenever opportunity offers, 

 and for this purpose vast numbers of these little leeches gather 

 about fishing stations where the bloody offal is thrown into the 

 water. In turn they form no inconsiderable part of the food of 

 certain of the larger leeches and of small carnivorous fishes, and, 

 along the shores of tidal rivers, of snipe and sandpipers. 



Like other species of the same family this leech carries its eggs 

 and young attached to the ventral surface of the parental body, 

 the margins of which are inrolled, especially when disturbed, to 

 make a crude sort of temporary brood chamber. Before hatch- 

 ing, the eggs are enclosed in groups in small mucoid sacs, of which 

 each leech may bear from eight to fifteen. 



The following are the labels attached to the Lake Maxinkuckee 

 specimens : "Long Point, under stones, Dec. 7, 1904," 1 speci- 

 men with G. complanata; "E. side knee-deep, Sept. 17, 1906," 20 

 with G. fusca; "19-I-III," one with G. complanata, G. fusca and G. 

 heteroclita. 



2. GLOSSIPHONIA FUSCA Castle 



This pretty little gray leech was taken at a greater number of 

 stations and is probably more plentiful in Lake Maxinkuckee than 

 the last. This might have been anticipated as it is generally more 

 partial to colder and clearer waters than is G. stagnalis. It is a 

 true snail-leech and, being much more sluggish than G. stagnalis, 

 confines its attacks almost exclusively to the smaller aquatic species 

 of these mollusks. In breeding habits this species resembles the 

 next to be described. 



"E. Long Pt., by Holbrunner's, Oct. 29, '04", 1 specimen with 

 G. complanata and a small Placobdella rugosa; "Long Pt. Nov. 1, 

 '04," one small example; "Long Pt. Dec. 7, '04, under stones," one 

 with seven G. complanata; "E. side knee-deep, Sept. 17, 1906," 2 

 with twenty G. stagnalis; "19-I-III," one with G. complanata and 

 G. heteroclita. 



3. GLOSSIPHONIA COMPLANATA (Linnaeus) 



This well-known species is widely distributed throughout 

 Europe, Asia and North America and is very constantly character- 

 ized everywhere by the arrangement of the eyes and the pair of 

 longitudinal dark lines above and below. In the Lake Maxin- 

 kuckee collections it is the most generally represented of its genus. 



The common name of snail-leech given to this species in Eng- 

 land is equally applicable here as its principal food consists of 



