Declining wetland areas cause many amphibian species to breed inside stormwater ponds (SWPs), which have been constructed alongside major roads collect and retain polluted road runoff water. However, the suitability of such artificial as a breeding habitat for amphibians remains unclear. Recently, study found very low survival rate European green toad tadpoles (Bufotes viridis) SWPs, presumably...

408e Although blood letting and the use of leeches dates back to pharaonic Egypt,1 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration only approved the use of Hirudo medicinalis as a medical device in 2004.2 Leeches are used by plastic,3–7 maxillofacial,8–10 and other surgeons11,12 to aid salvage of venously congested pedicled flaps,13,14 freetissue transfers,3,15–17 replanted digits,6,18–25 ears,26–32 lips...

A scourge of tropical and subtropical jungles, bloodfeeding terrestrial leeches of Haemadipsidae have long confused systematists and defied sensible biogeographic interpretation. The family Haemadipsidae usually includes problematic taxa that neither fit the typical IndoPacific distribution of the group, nor properly match diagnostic characters used to define the family. Historically, four addi...

In Spain leeches have been used both in popular and scientific medicine throughout its history. In this study we analyze the historical fluctuations of leech therapy. At the start of the 20th century it was still being used in in scientific medicine, as can be seen in the treatment administered to Germán Gamazo, a minister during the reign of Alfonso XII and the regency of Archduchess Maria Chr...

Among Kinetoplastida, the Trypanosoma is the genus with the highest occurrence infecting populations of marine fish and freshwater in the world, with high levels of prevalence, causing influences fish health and consequent economic losses, mainly for fish populations in situation stress. This study investigated infections of Hypostomus spp. by Trypanosoma spp. and leeches, as well as blood para...

Sensory feedback from stretch receptors, neurons that detect position or tension, is crucial for generating normal, robust locomotion. Among the eight pairs of putative stretch receptors associated with longitudinal muscles in midbody segments of medicinal leeches, only the ventral stretch receptor has been characterized in detail. To achieve the identification of all such receptors, we penetra...

Description This is the case of a 45-year-old man with documented coronary artery disease, who refused a referral for coronary artery bypass grafting surgery (CABG) and preferred instead to seek leech therapy (Figure 1). The second course of leech application resulted in the patient’s becoming severely symptomatic and suffering myocardial infarction, for which he was referred to our center. In ...

The practice of bloodletting or phlebotomy was a predominant feature of western medicine in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and the use of medicinal leeches as a mild form of letting blood achieved immense notoriety in the second quarter of the nineteenth century, especially in France. The almost insatiable demand for leeches drove a lucrative trade in these animals, the history of whi...