Fauna Europaea provides a public web-service with an index of scientific names (including important synonyms) of all living European land and freshwater animals, their geographical distribution at country level (up to the Urals, excluding the Caucasus region), and some additional information. The Fauna Europaea project covers about 230,000 taxonomic names, including 130,000 accepted species and...

We have recently shown that the nociceptive neurons (N cells) in the leech can be segregated into a medial type (Nmed) and a lateral type (Nlat) according to their physiological and pharmacological properties. We now report that the Na-dependent action potential (AP) of the 2 cell types in Macrobdella have differential sensitivities to tetrodotoxin and that the APs of the N-cell homologs from d...

Pasante Div. Zool. Invertebrados, Cátedra Zoología Invertebrados I, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo – FCNYM, Universidad Nacional de La Plata – UNLP b Cátedra Zoología Invertebrados I, FCNYM, Universidad Nacional de La Plata – UNLP Div. Zoología Invertebrados, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Investigador Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas de...

The maintenance of ion homeostasis requires adequate ion sensors. In leeches, 34 nephridial nerve cells (NNCs) monitor the Cl(-) concentration of the blood. After a blood meal, the Cl(-) concentration of leech blood triples and is gradually restored to its normal value within 48 h after feeding. As previously shown in voltage-clamp experiments, the Cl(-) sensitivity of the NNCs relies on a pers...

In embryos of glossiphoniid leeches such as Helobdella triserialis and H. robusta, pairs of adjacent 'o/p' ectodermal blast cells are known to be developmentally equipotent and yet eventually contribute distinct sets of 'O' and 'P' progeny to the nervous system and epidermis of the mature leech. It has been thought that the fate-determining interactions in this 'O-P equivalence group' take plac...

Plant and animal-derived products are crucial components in complementary and alternative medicine. Although modern medicine has provided numerous innovations and advancements, these often fail to reveal new and dependable, inexpensive treatments nor real cures that are relatively free of adverse side effects. We present evidence that hirudotherapy, which utilizes leeches, improves certain dise...

Martin Duke, MD The author is retired from private practice in cardiology. He was formerly director of Medical Education and chief of Cardiology at Manchester Memorial Hospital in Manchester, Connecticut, and assistant clinical professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine in Farmington. He has published The Development of Medical Techniques and Tre...

Bloodletting is an ancient procedure that was utilized for curing the ills of man. This article traces the use of leeches for bloodletting therapy from ancient Greek times to the Chapin Harris era in the 1840s to modern day usage by plastic surgeons. The leech is described as both a parasite and a therapeutic agent. The techniques used by both medicine and dentistry are historically documented.

Three species of land leeches, including a new combination Haemadipsa rjukjuanacomb. n., a new record for Haemadipsa picta Moore, as well as an updated description for Tritetrabdella taiwana (Oka), are reported in this study. Morphological characters and DNA barcode analysis were used to identify these species. In addition, since Haemadipsa rjukjuana had been regarded as a variety of the Japane...

A device that could locomote through curving and tortuous spaces would find many applications in medicine and in industry. Invertebrates such as earthworms and leeches can solve this problem using peristaltic locomotion. We describe a device consisting of three braided pneumatic actuators in series that can successfully locomote peristaltically. The device can locomote forwards and backwards in...