The body form of leeches, which becomes a modeling object, is a valid ectosomatic feature. It describes borders, in which, we can find internal organs of an individual. The range of realization of the body form, proposed for different groups of leeches, characterize their life spaces. These life spaces are distinct in term of position of body of leeches to the host and to the environment. Indiv...

Leaving the water to bask (usually in sun) is a common behavior for many freshwater turtles, with some species also engaging “nocturnal basking.” Ectoparasite removal an obvious hypothesis explain nocturnal basking and has been proposed as key driver of diurnal basking. However, efficacy basking, day or night, remove leeches not experimentally tested. Therefore, we examined number that were rem...

Ingestion lasts 25 min in Hirudo medicinalis and is characterized by pharyngeal peristalsis which fills the crop. This peristalsis has an initial rate of 2.4 Hz which decays smoothly to 1.2 Hz at termination of ingestion. During ingestion, the leech body wall undergoes peristalsis which appears to aid in filling the crop diverticula. Body peristalsis begins at a rate of 10 min-1 and decreases l...

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 scientist...

Giant viruses and amoebae are common in freshwater, where they can coexist with other living multicellular organisms. We screened leeches from the species Hirudo medicinalis for giant viruses. We analyzed five H. medicinalis obtained from Tunisia (3) and France (2). The leeches were decontaminated and then dissected to remove internal parts for co-culture with Acanthamoeba polyphaga. The genome...

The saliva of medicinal leeches, e.g., Hirudo medicinalis and Hirudo verbana commonly used in hirudotherapy, contains more than 100 bioactive substances with various therapeutic effects, including anticoagulant, vasodilator, thrombolytic, anti-inflammatory and anaesthetic properties. Recently, leeches have been used very successfully in veterinary medicine to treat many diseases of animals, esp...

Parasitic leeches and trypanosomes release chemical signals into their hosts to evade immuno-detection, but it is unknown whether these compounds manipulate host behavior or endocrine physiology. We determined whether parasitic infections with leeches and/or trypanosomes affected the immune and stress response of an imperiled giant species of amphibian, the eastern hellbender (Cryptobranchus al...

A case of severe penetrating eye injury and resulting periorbital haematoma is described. Leeches applied to the eyelids enabled examination of the globe to be carried out and improved the surgical approach. Leeches provide a speedy and efficient means of reducing a periorbital haematoma.

Safe evacuation of people from building and outdoor environments, and search and rescue operations, always will remain actual in course of all socio-technological developments. Modern facilities offer a range of automated systems to guide residents towards emergency exists. The systems are assumed to be infallible. But what if they fail? How occupants not familiar with a building layout will be...