*the oral suckers (= openings on both ends) are used for feeding, reproduction and moving;

*only the jawed leeches can swim; though the other kinds live most of their lives in water, they sink to the bottom and stay there curled up

leech therapy — blood letting

*the ‘giant Americobdell leech’ from southern Chile feeds on large earthworm which it swallows whole

**some species of leech look after their young providing food and protection which, the experts believe, is an unusual behaviour in invertebrates (soft body animals without back-bone or other bones)

*in the past, for 2500 years, leeches were needlessly used in medical treatment – some barbers and physicians used the ‘medicinal leech’ to drain the blood of a sick person, (the treatment is called ‘bloodletting’), with the blind belief that when the bad blood was drained off, by letting the leeches suck out, a patient would get better

(a wound made by a leech)

**however, leeches are being used in the present day advanced medical science – in scientific research and plastic and reconstructive surgery, because leeches produce some kinds of fluids which make their bite painless and keep the blood of the prey from clotting (= getting thick so that more blood does not come out of the wound or hole they make); a new type of medical treatment for certain heart and brain diseases, called ‘leech therapy’, is gradually becoming popular in the developed countries; only 15 of the 650 species of leech are used for medicinal purpose

**finally, the more experienced victims advise the inexperienced victims to let the leech suck the blood, which process takes about 20-40 minutes, and drop off on its own, instead of trying to pull it off or using some less successful methods of getting rid of it, like using leech repellents or even burning them with lit cigarettes, when a leech catches them unaware!!