European Blood-sucking Leech
Hirudo medicinalis
Hirudo medicinalis lives in small freshwater ponds with muddy bottoms and reeds. Its flattened body has 33–34 segments and dark dorsal coloring with reddish or brown stripes.[2]
Appearance
Its body is dorsoventrally flattened and divided into 33–34 segments. Six reddish or brown stripes run along the dark-brown to black back; the underside is speckled.[2]
Life
A typical habitat is a small freshwater pond with a muddy bottom and reeds along the shore. Frogs may be seasonally abundant there.[2]
A draft genome from specimen ROMIZI 11733 spans 176.96 Mb across 19,929 scaffolds, with an N50 of 50,382 bp.[3]
Places
Native range · Western and southern Europe to the Urals[2]
The account places its range in parts of western and southern Europe east to the Ural Mountains and countries bordering the northeastern Mediterranean.
Sources
- Catalogue of Life 2026-09-25 XR
Catalogue of Life · 2026-10-13
- Hirudo medicinalis
Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan Museum of Zoology · 2026-10-25
- Draft genome of the European medicinal leech Hirudo medicinalis (Annelida, Clitellata, Hirudiniformes) with emphasis on anticoagulants
Scientific Reports / PubMed Central · 2026-10-25