HIEUDINEA OR LEECHES. 95 



or sexual band produced. The ova are laid about forty days 

 after fecundation. When ovipositing, this leech, like the 

 Medical Leech [H. medicinalis), burrows into damp ground 

 and lays about fifteen ova in the funnel-shaped case secreted by 

 the girdle. This case is left by the worm, and hardens and 

 forms a brown spongy cocoon. Each leech may form two of 

 these cocoons. The ova take from twenty to thirty days to 

 incubate. The young leeches are filiform, and remain near the 

 case for some days, using it as a kind of shelter. 



This species attacks horses as they come to drink, each 

 individual withdrawing as much as one and a half drachm 



Fro. 37. — The Horse-Leech {Hfnmopis sanguisuga). RaiUiet. Natiiral size, 

 and young leech. (From Neumann, Par. Dis. Ani.) 



of blood from the wound they make with their mouth. Often 

 one may see blood flowing from the wound after the leech 

 has fallen off its victim, gorged with food. There is some fluid 

 in the pharynx which prevents the blood from coagulating in 

 the leech. This feast will last the worm for a year. Leeches 

 are long-lived animals, not maturing until four or five years 

 old, and live for as much as twenty years. They inhabit 

 ponds, ditches, and springs, and flourish on the bottom mud. 

 The young seem to be very partial to running water. This 

 horse-leech is met with over most of Europe and in North 

 Africa, and is extremely troublesome to horses in Syria. It 

 does not live on the skin, but enters the mouth, nose, &c., of 

 horses as they are drinking, and seizes hold of the mucous mem- 



