Landing gel

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Landing gel
Ceylon gel (Haemadipsa zeylanica) in Japan

Ceylon gel ( Haemadipsa zeylanica ) in Japan

Systematics
Trunk : Annelids (Anellida)
Class : Belt worms (Clitellata)
Subclass : Leeches (Hirudinea)
Order : Hirudinida
Subordination : Kieferegel (Gnathobdelliformes)
Family : Landing gel
Scientific name
Haemadipsidae
Blanchard , 1893
Haemadipsa picta on the finger of a potential human host
Haemadipsa picta on a shoe
Haemadipsa zeylanica sucks blood through a sock
Haemadipsa zeylanica when sucking, anchored to the skin with both suction cups (head left)
Haemadipsa zeylanica , full and soaked. Pahang , Malaysia
Wound bitten by Haemadipsa zeylanica
A blister formed on a wound bitten by Haemadipsa zeylanica

The Landegel (Haemadipsidae) are a family of Kieferegel (Hirudiniformes), in humid forests of Asia as a blood sucking parasites different vertebrates and the people affected.

features

The landing leeches are outwardly similar to the leeches of the family Hirudinidae native to Europe , but are much smaller. You have two to three jaws, each with a simple row of teeth. Each segment has three to twelve rings on the outside. The rear suction cup has numerous radial grooves that make it easier to move around on land. The body is covered with longitudinal furrows that run across the ringlets, creating a net-like pattern with square spots.

While the leeches of the genus Haemadipsa have three jaws in their throat and five ringlets per segment in the middle section, the genus Phytobdella has two jaws and six ringlets per segment. On their rear suction cup, leeches of the genus Haemadipsa also have a curved appendage (grasping papilla) that enables them to move about in the branches.

The landing leeches perceive their host against the wind due to their sense of smell and probably also warmth and move quickly in its direction through branches, grass or over the ground. They have a mechanism that keeps the suction cups moist even in dry weather: The first pair of nephridia flow through a long ureter directly into the front suction cup. The escaping urine is distributed over the furrows of the suction cup by capillary action on its surface. The rearmost nephridia, on the other hand, open under lobed appendages ("ears" or auricles) of the 23rd, 24th and 25th segments. During the movement of the leech, these extensions brush the inside of the rear suction cup and wet it with the urine. The shape of the rotatable rear suction cup with its gripping papilla, which in some species can also actively include a branch, enables the leech to move very quickly in branches and grass.

Distribution, habitats and example species

The landing leeches live in forests in South Asia , Southeast Asia , Australia and Madagascar , where they infest mammals as blood-sucking parasites.

The Ceylon gel ( Haemadipsa zeylanica ), which was described by Alfred Moquin-Tandon as the first species in 1827 , is barely 4 cm long and is distributed throughout Southeast Asia from India to Japan and is represented by several geographical subspecies. The species lives mainly on the ground, from where it attacks the hosts, especially on the legs. Due to an anesthetic in the saliva, their bites are often barely noticed, so that the leech can soak itself up and eventually fall off. The up to 3.3 cm long tiger rule ( Haemadipsa picta ) is widespread in Borneo , Indochina and Taiwan , where it lives in branches above a height of 1 m. It can drop on its hosts and cause very painful bite wounds. This is also done by the ground-living Indian land leech ( Haemadipsa sylvestris ). A common leech species in the forests of southeastern Australia that also sucks blood from humans is the Australian land leech ( Chtonobdella limbata ). But there are also landing leeches that only suckle on reptiles , such as the chain-striped leech ( Phytobdella catenifera ) native to the Malay Peninsula .

Importance to humans

Some landing leeches, including the Ceylon leech and the tiger rule, appear en masse in places, so that passers-by in the forest cannot prevent numerous leeches from sucking on them. The leeches, whose bites can also lead to bacterial secondary infections, in some cases transmit flagellates of the genus Trypanosoma and in some cases cause crippling or even death of the affected person. This is why some forest areas are almost impassable for soldiers, for example, which has led to military institutions doing research on the leeches. Impregnation of the standard United States Army's uniform with the chemical M-1960 was found to be adequate protection in studies in the 1950s.

The chosen stockings should be thick enough (here: Haemadipsa sp.)

The Olomouc German-Moravian zoologist Ludwig Karl Schmarda reports on a trip through the British colony Ceylon, today's Sri Lanka , in the 1850s:

“Both plagues [which the cockroaches and mosquitoes cause] are, however, nothing compared to the much greater one which pursues the wanderer everywhere; for the forests and meadows are teeming with small country leeches, it is the Hirudo ceylanica [sic] older reporter. They live in the grass, under fallen leaves and stones, here also on trees and bushes. They are extremely quick in their movements and have to smell their prey from a distance. As soon as they see a person or an animal, they come from all over the neighborhood and pounce on their prey. Often you hardly notice the sucking out of the blood. After a few hours they are soaked and then fall off by themselves. [...] It is particularly unpleasant that the leeches prefer to go to places where their predecessors have already found a good pasture, because the inflamed, blood-streaked and warmer skin attracts them. In this part of the country people suffer more from leeches than from snakes, elephants, and beasts of prey. To protect yourself against the attack of this small but terrible enemy, it is imperative to protect your feet in particular. This is done with leather or thick woolen stockings, which are put on over the trousers and tied under the knee. We found the latter sufficient and comfortable, but always carried a spare pair with us, as they were very easily torn in the thicket or rubbed through when walking. I found them [the leeches] often sitting by the dozen on the collar, trying to get through. During the march we suffered much less, the first in line suffering the least. The footpaths are so narrow that only man behind man can walk. Once the leeches have a scent, the next ones fall all the more greedily. Even with all due caution, we soon had them on our necks, in our hair or on our arms, as they not only live in the grass and arbor, but also on the trees from which they let themselves fall on people or animals passing by. "

Systematics

The following genera are now included in the Haemadipsidae family :

The European land leech ( Xerobdella lecomtei ), which, in contrast to the Haemadipsidae, does not suck blood, but captures insect larvae and earthworms and devours them as a whole , was also placed in this family for a while . However, the genus Xerobdella does not belong to this taxon, but just like the genus Mesobdella to the family Xerobdellidae .

literature

  • Hasko Nesemann, Eike Neubert: Annelida, Clitellata: Branchiobdellida, Acanthobdellea, Hirudinea. Spectrum Academic Publishing House, Heidelberg / Berlin 1999. p. 105.
  • Hasko Friedrich Nesemann: Aquatic invertebrates of the Ganga River System: Mollusca, Annelida, Crustacea (in part) , Volume 1. Chandi Press, Kathmandu 2007. p. 155.
  • Yi-Te Lai, Takafumi Nakano, Jiun-Hong Chen (2011): Three species of land leeches from Taiwan, Haemadipsa rjukjuana comb. n., a new record for Haemadipsa picta Moore, and an updated description of Tritetrabdella taiwana (Oka). ZooKeys 139: 1-22.
  • Hugh L. Keegan, Seiichi Toshioka, Hiroshi Suzuki: Blood Sucking Asian Leeches of Families Hirudidae [sic] and Haemadipsidae. US Army Medical Command, Japan, 1968.
  • JP Moore: Arhynchobdellae. In: WA Harding, JP Moore (Ed.): The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma. Hirudinea. Taylor and Francis, London 1927. pp. 97-298, here 254ff.
  • JP Moore (1929): Leeches from Borneo with descriptions of new species. Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences Philadelphia 81, pp. 267-295.
  • JP Moore (1930): Leeches (Hirudinea) from China with descriptions of new species. Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences Philadelphia 82, pp. 169-192.
  • A. Soos: Identification key to the leech (Hirudinoidea) genera of the world with a catalog of the species. IV. Family: Haemadipsidae. Acta Zoologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 13, pp. 417-432, 1967
  • Urania Tierreich , Volume 2. Urania-Verlag, Leipzig / Jena / Berlin 1966. P. 79, 84f., Family Haemadipsidae, Landegel .

Web links

Commons : Landegel (Haemadipsidae)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hasko Friedrich Nesemann: Aquatic invertebrates of the Ganga River System: Mollusca, Annelida, Crustacea (in part), Vol. 1. Chandi Press, Kathmandu 2007. p. 155.
  2. Jump up ↑ Hugh L. Keegan, Seiichi Toshioka, Hiroshi Suzuki: Blood Sucking Asian Leeches of Families Hirudidae [sic] and Haemadipsidae. US Army Medical Command, Japan, 1968. Genus Haemadipsa Tennent, pp. 33-35.
  3. ^ W. Nachtigall: Biological Mechanisms of Attachment: The Comparative Morphology and Bioengineering of Organs for Linkage, Suction, and Adhesion. Translated by MA Biederman-Thorson. Springer Verlag, Berlin / Heidelberg 1974. p. 128.
  4. ^ KH Mann: Leeches (Hirudinea): Their Structure, Physiology, Ecology and Embryology. Pergamon Press, Oxford 1962. pp. 32-34.
  5. ↑ Heinz Mehlhorn: The Parasites of Animals: Recognize, fight and prevent diseases. 7th edition. Springer-Verlag, Berlin / Heidelberg. 2012. p. 367.
  6. ^ BC Walton, R. Traub, HD Newson 1956: Efficacy of the clothing impregnants M-2065 and M-2066 against Terrestrial Leeches in North Borneo. American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 5, pp. 190-196.
  7. ^ Ludwig Karl Schmarda: Ludwig K. Schmarda's trip around the earth in the years 1853-1857. G. Westermann , Braunschweig 1861. pp. 416f.
  8. ↑ Elizabeth Borda, Alejandro Oceguera-Figueroa, Mark E. Siddall (2008): On the classification, evolution and biogeography of terrestrial haemadipsoid leeches (Hirudinida: Arhynchobdellida: Hirudiniformes). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution Volume 46, Issue 1: 142-154. doi : 10.1016 / j.ympev.2007.09.006