Lovely story from The Guardian

It was September 2014. I’d just started working front of house in a fancy hotel in Edinburgh. I spent most of my shifts with a paper napkin pressed to my nostril, as I had been getting lots of nosebleeds. I would soon find out why.

A few weeks earlier, I’d been travelling in Vietnam. I had rented a moped and had the time of my life driving around. I soon crashed but luckily was wearing a helmet, so only got a small bump on my head.

A few days afterwards, I started to intermittently spot blood from my right nostril. I assumed it was from the crash and didn’t think too much of it. I was 24 and too busy partying to take anything like that seriously. I danced the nights away while ignoring the persistent blockage in my nose.

Reality came flooding back after returning to cold Glasgow. Nothing had changed with my nose, so I went to the GP. The doctor told me that it didn’t sound like anything to worry about. I was advised to use Vaseline on the area to keep the nostril lubricated and was sent on my way.

A week later, I moved to Edinburgh for my job. That’s when I started to feel frustrated with my constantly stuffy nose. I wasn’t in pain, but sleeping was difficult. I would blow my nose to try to clear the blockage, but it would only lead to nosebleeds. Things started to get particularly weird when I was having showers. Through all the humidity, I could feel a thick, slimy thing moving down my nose.

I had a day off work; it had been a month since I returned from abroad. My friend Jenny was coming from Glasgow to meet me for dinner. I was in the shower when I felt the all-too-familiar feeling, but this time I glimpsed something hanging out of my nostril. I jumped out and raced to the mirror, frantically wiping off the steam. I saw a clot hanging out – then recoiled in horror when I saw ridges running along a thick black body.

I rushed out of the house to see my friend, screaming, “It’s a full-on worm!” Jenny knew about the problems I’d been having with my nose, but she didn’t believe me at first. I stuck my nose in the air so that she could see for herself. Her mouth hung wide as she gaped and said: “Yep, there really is a worm in there.”

At first, it was the most hysterical thing that had ever happened to us. We couldn’t stop laughing. Because it had been in there for so long, I felt very blase about the whole thing. We rang the NHS helpline. The call adviser was crying tears of laughter over the phone, as it was the most bizarre thing she’d heard.

We went to A&E. Doctors were bewildered and didn’t take me too seriously at first. But once the nurse looked up my nose, she gasped. I was placed on a gurney as they stretched my nostril open with forceps. The doctors spent 30 minutes using different tools to try to prise the leech away. Leeches release an anaesthetic when they bite so they can stay on a body for longer, which is why I couldn’t feel the pain before – but it was agony when the doctors tried to pull it out. When they finally succeeded, I felt a wave of cold air shooting through the blocked nostril. It was like being in a nightmare, seeing the leech held up high, squirming. It was longer than my finger.

I’d swum a lot on holiday, so we guessed that it most likely came from there rather than having anything to do with the motorcycle accident. The leech was put in a jar and sent to a specialist hospital in London for further testing – they were worried that it may have passed on further diseases to me. Suddenly, something that was so funny seemed much more serious.

Luckily, all of my tests came back clear, and I had no side-effects. I was given the leech back in a pot and told to dispose of it. The leech was rock hard because it had so much of my blood inside. It made me squirm just looking at it.

Now, a decade later, the story of the leech and me has become a go-to anecdote whenever I meet someone new. I even had someone message me on LinkedIn recently asking about it. So while the leech was attached to me in a very physical sense, I guess we’re still attached metaphorically. But I’m very glad it’s out.

-Leeches are found all across the world, except Antarctica, so far around 700 species of leech have been described. Approximately 100 are marine, 480 freshwater and the remainder are terrestrial different species…. All of these are divided into 2 major infraclasses

1. Euhirudinea: the 'true' leeches – marine, freshwater and terrestrial – which have suckers at both ends and lack chaetae (bristles)

2. Acanthobdellida: a small northern hemisphere infraclass ectoparasitic on salmoniid fish, which lack an anterior sucker and retain chaetae.

The Euhirudinea is further divided into two orders:

1. Rhynchobdellida: jawless marine and freshwater leeches with a protrusible proboscis and true vascular system

2. Arynchobdellida: jawed and jawless freshwater and terrestrial leeches with a non-protrusible muscular pharynx and a haemo-coelomic system. source

Above image from here

-Leeches are segmented parasitic or predatory worms, and are closely related to earthworms

-They have suckers at both ends of their bodies and use them to travel around by ‘looping’ or ‘crawling.’ Some species can also swim like an eel

Above image by Chiswick Chap via wikipedia

-All leeches are hermaphrodites, although they prefer to find a mate to exchange sperm packets with…..

-They can live in both fresh and salt water, and there are some which are terrestrial, living on the ground or on low growing plants waiting for a meal to brush past

-Some species can even survive extremely dry conditions by burrowing into the soil where they can stay without any water. Their bodies contract, becoming dry and rigid, but within 10 minutes of water contact they emerge, ready to go!

-The most famous type of leech is probably the European medicinal leech (Hirudo medicinalis), which was used extensively in the past (the first recorded case being Ancient Egypt 3500 years ago). Its populations in the wild have dropped significantly due to over exploitation for the medical industry

Photo by Neil Phillips

-Manchester Royal Infirmary used 50,000 leeches in one year in 1831, but use of the medicinal leech started to decline during the late 19th century. However, since the 1970’s they have made a comeback due to their use in micro surgery. Their anti coagulant saliva allows blood to keep flowing, and wounds to stay open during reattachment and reconstructive surgery!

Photo by Armando Caldas

-Hirudo medicinalis are ‘jawed’ leeches (Gnathobdellida). They have 3 jaws resembling rotary saws which have around 100 sharp edges used to incise the host which leaves a Y shape wound on the skin. They are so tiny their bite is virtually painless. Blood suckers are only one type of leech though...

-Other species of jawed leeches can have between 1 and 3 jaws. Detrivorous species use their jaws for chewing and swallowing soft food particles, whilst the carnivores use them to cut a hole in the body walls of invertebrate prey (molluscs, worms, insect larvae), in order to suck out the soft innards.

Photo by Manuel Krueger-Krusche

-The largest fresh water leech in the world is Haementeria ghilianii, (the Amazon giant leech) which can grow up to 450mm long and 100mm wide. One end of the leech contains its head, and the other the proboscis, which is 10cm long and like a hypodermic needle. It is capable of feeding on humans, rabbits, cattle and horses and a report from 1899 claims it could feed in such numbers that it could kill cattle and birds

Photo by Anonyme973

-Its male reproductive parts can weigh 3-5 grams, and the female parts weigh in at 10 grams, they are capable of producing egg clutches ranging from 60 to 500 eggs

-It was thought to be extinct in 1893, however during the 1970s Dr Roy Sawyer discovered 2 specimens in a pond in French Guiana. One of these was transferred to the UC Berkeley where it was part of a ‘breeding’ program. Named ‘Grandma Moses’ it managed to produce 750 offspring over 3 years, and helped to bring the Amazon Giant Leech back from the brink of extinction

Dr. Roy Sawyer and friend photographed by Timothy Branning

-When it died, ‘Grandma Moses’ was given to the Smithsonian National Invertebrate Collection where it still resides preserved in alcohol!

The Grandma Moses leech

-A small minority of leech species have no jaws or teeth (these are the worm leeches or Pharyngobdellida). Instead they swallow their prey, usually small invertebrates, whole!

-The Kinabalu giant red leech (Mimobdella buettikoferi) is probably one of the longest leeches, growing over 50cm.

Above photo from here

-It lives only on Mt Kinabalu, Borneo and feeds on an equal giant prey, the Kinabalu giant earthworm (Pheretima darnleiensis)

Kinabalu giant earthworm, Photo by Chien Lee

Kinabalu giant earthworm, Photo by Ivan Kwan

-It lives among the leaf litter and soil, and both leech and worm are usually seen during or after a downpour….

Found here

A hungry leech is very responsive to light and mechanical stimuli. It tends to change position frequently, and explore by head movement and body waving. It also assumes an alert posture, extending to full length and remaining motionless. This is thought to maximise the function of the sensory structures in the skin. source

Photo from here

-When it finds a worm it begins to grope towards an end, then it begins to suck…..

Here is a delightful film of just that!

Also on youtube

Above photos by Paul Williams

-Almost all leeches have at least one pair of tiny eyes, however some can have up to 16, these are arranged in patterns although their vision may only be able to detect light and dark.

Photo by Paul

-Glossiphoniid leeches demonstrate exceptional parental care for their offspring, which is the most highly developed for the annelids (the worm species). They produce a membranous bag in which they keep their eggs, this is carried on the underside of their bodies. When the young hatch they attach onto their parents belly (but not with a feeding bite) and the parent carries them to their first meal!

Above photo by Maralee Joos

Above photo by Duncan Cooke

Above photo by Duncan Cooke

Helobdella, which have a world-wide distribution, display the most highly developed parental care system: they not only protect but also feed the young they carry. This results in the young being much larger when they leave the parent and, presumably, in higher subsequent survival. source

Above photo by Dick Todd

-Leeches are quite hardy, some can survive in low oxygen environments, others at low ocean depth such as….

Bathybdella sawyeri occurs at 2447–2623 m depth at the Galápagos Rift and the Southeast Pacific Rise and Galatheabdella bruuni has been found at depths of 3880–4400 m in the Tasman Sea (Richardson and Meyer, 1973; Burreson, 1981; Burreson and Segonzac, 2006). However, the leech that occurs at the greatest depth is Johanssonia extrema described by Utevsky et al. (2019) that was collected at a depth of 8728.8 m in the Kuril-Kamchatka Trench. Occurring at that depth, J. extrema withstands pressure that is over 870 times greater than that at sea level. source

-Some species have evolved to live within the extreme dark of caves, others to withstand the extreme cold of arctic waters, one lives in waters of high alkalinity with the addition of arsenic at levels >110mg/L

Members of Praobdellidae are characterized by feeding primarily from mucous membranes [mouth, throat, nasal passages, and under the eyelids] particularly of mammals, but also from the skin of amphibians. This behavior is considered equally unnerving by both academic and public audiences. source

-A backpacker returning from Vietnam discovered she had also brought home a leech passenger that was attached inside her nostril "At one point, I could feel him up at my eyebrow," she said. It was removed at Liverpool Hospital, before it could reach her brain…. She than kept the leech named ‘Mr Curly’ as a pet…. delightful!

-One other leech has evolved to live in another type of orifice...a hippos anus!

…...Placobdelloides jaegerskioeldi inhabits one of the most extreme environments of all of the leeches that invade orifices, the rectum of the hippopotamus (Oosthuizen and Davies, 1994). Adult P. jaegerskioeldi have papilla-bearing tubercules that are postulated to provide traction against the anal-wall of the hippopotamus (Oosthuizen and Davies, 1994). This species is also one of the few glossiphoniid leeches that can actively swim and swims (even upstream) to its hippopotamus host (Oosthuizen and Davies, 1994). source

As always, I’m not and expert I just like finding and sharing fun things I find on the internet. Any mistakes or errors, let me know in the comments and I’ll edit my post!

All information via wikipedia-

Leech

Giant Amazon Leech

Medicinal Leech

Kinabalu Giant Leech

Glossiphoniidae

Except these-

Bogleech

Smithsonian Magazine

Australian Museum

buzzfeed

Leeches in the extreme: Morphological, physiological, and behavioral adaptations to inhospitable habitats

mentalfloss

The Evolution of Parental Care in Freshwater Leeches

Title photo by LS Perks

Native to Australia (where else?) it can also be found as an invasive species in New Zealand. It feeds on Eucalyptus species and can become problematic, striping the leaves and damaging the trees hence it's actual name The Gum Leaf Skeletoniser

As the caterpillar grows it sheds it's exoskeleton, during each molt the head portion of the previous exoskeleton stays attached to it's body resulting in a mini tower of empty heads

“The molted head capsules start stacking early but they are not always visible, as the smaller ones get dislodged over time,” Hochuli said. “It’s not uncommon to see caterpillars with at least five old heads stacked on top of the one they are currently using.” Source

The heads can reach up to 12mm tall, and look rather dandy!

Photo by Alan Henderson/Minibeast Wildlife

The several reasons for this, one is to look bigger and more intimidating to predators, another is to create a false target for a predator, and another is that the caterpillar uses the head piece as a weapon or shield to fend off insects with needle like mouth parts such as Assassin Bugs

....researchers removed the head stacks from some caterpillars, left them on others, and kept tabs on their survival once they were back in the field. Caterpillars who kept their extra heads were much more likely to survive in the field....Source

Photo by John Tann

Unfortunately for The Mad Hatterpillar it's list of predators is long and relentless.... it has also evolved stinging hairs to complement it's head gear, and will writhe around to evade being grabbed, and if that isn't enough it will vomit out it's guts....

“They’ll just spew out a whole bit of yucky green liquid that probably smells and tastes awful,” Henderson said. “And if they shove that in the face of the predator, it can turn them off.” Source

Photo by Betty AN

Once the Mad Hatterpillar is finished eating all the Eucalyptus it can, it pupates into a small brown, unremarkable moth with markings that help it camouflage on the trunks of it's food source

Photo by Victor Fazio

Title photo by Thomas J Astle (Possibly Zoosphaerium neptunus, Madagascar)

Giant Pill Millipedes (Sphaerotheriida) are found in Southern Africa, Madagascar, South and Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand. They like moist habitats in leaf litter on forest floors

They can roll into a ball if disturbed, smaller ones can be the size of a cherry, slightly larger ones can be golf ball. The largest which come from Madagasgar can be the size of an orange!

.....crunchy on the outside with a soft chewy centre....

Borneo Giant Millipede, Photo by Tristan Savatier

Sabah, Borneo, Photo by Thomas J Astle

Possibly Zoosphaerium neptunus, Madagascar. Photo by Thomas J Astle

The Giant Millipedes first and last dorsal plate align perfectly with no gap, making a tightly sealed ball which most predators can't open, however there are some including snails in South Africa which specialise in feeding on them. Also Meerkats and birds will hunt and eat them!

They are ground dwelling detritivores, and feed on dead organic matter, such as leaves and wood on the forest floor. They play an important role in decomposition helping to break down organic matter back into the soil!

A few Giant Millipedes can produce sound!

Sphaeromimus pill-millipedes live in the rainforests of southeastern Madagascar.....Males have a structure on their anterior telopod, known as the harp, which has several ribs and is able to produce sounds. This stridulation organ is still not well understood, but may play a role during courtship. Source

The name for them in the local language [in Madagasgar] is 'tainkintana' which means 'star droppings'!

Their antennae are very dexterous and mobile, and resemble elephant trunks as they probe their environment!

checkout this video!

Sabah, Borneo, photo by Thomas J Astle

Their sex lives have 4 different phases....

The first phase is when a male detects a female, and orientates itself by positioning its anal shield towards the potential partner. Second, once the male is in contact with the female it starts to make stridulation sounds and vibrations. If the female recognises the male and is receptive, she will open up from her rolled-up position, or not roll up, and the male will then move below the female and grab her front legs with his telopods

The male then ejects sperm from his penises (he has one small penis at the base of each of the first pair of legs on the second segment), and transfers the sperm backwards along his legs and into the female opening which is on her second pair of legs. The two millipedes will then separate. After that, the female lays her eggs in the soil and covers them with a mud layer for protection. The eggs hatch into very small, pale pill-millipedes. Source

They are slow movers and are able to burrow into the soil and leaf litter. They also come in a nice variety of colours and patterning!

Photo by KancheongSpider

Photo by Mok Youn Fai

Agumbe Rainforest Research Station, Karnataka, India, photo by cowyeow

Possibly Zoosphaerium neptunus), Madagascar, photo by Thomas J Astle

Bothrobelum rugosum, Bau, Sarawak, Malaysia, Photo by bob5

Adult females have 21 leg pairs (42 in total), while males have an additional 2 leg pairs, which are probably used to grasp onto the females during mating!

Zoosphaerium neptunus, photo by Nicky Bay

.....draw me like one of your French girls.......

Zephroniidae, photo by Nicky Bay

Sphaerotheriida, Karnataka, India, photo by vipin.baliga

All info via wikipedia and Scientific American unless otherwise stated

Also I'm not an expert, I just like sharing fun things and critters, any errors let me know in the comments and I'll edit my post, cheers