Identification Key of West Bengal Leeches (annelida: Hirudinea)

As in animal kingdom every organism has a specific importance under non-chordate hfOUP, leeches have also great importance both in taxonomy and medicinal field. lalaukas the naJne of leech is in "Susruta", lalauka in "Mahabharata" Jaluka in Sanskrit, laru in Sindhi, and Juku in Nepali. Due to medicinal value and venomous quality leeches are becoming attractive to human beings, so many scientists are engaged to discover the leeches. Leeches are very important so far regulation of size and shape of the invertebrate communities is concerned. They, on way of sucking blood from cattle, reptiles, amphibians and fishes transmit the blood parasites and thereby inviting trypanosomiasis and helminthiasis in these animal groups. More than 549 species of leeches are reported from the world (Bondyopadhyay, P.K. and MandaI, C.K. 2006) of which about 63 species have so far been recored in Indian region. In West Bengal, however 28 species are now known to occur in varied ecological conditions from plains to the mountains, low to heavy rainfall areas and from river bed to ponds. Some species live permanently in water while others in dampy bushes under rotten leaves, bricks and stones.