Monday, May 7, 2007

Excuse Me, Does Your Leech Bite?


We have always noticed leeches in the creek that goes through our back yard, but never one as big as the one my boys found today. He was not a cooperative leech and there was no way I was going to hold him, but I did manage to get a some pictures before he slithered away. He really blended in with his surroundings and was hard to see in most of the pictures, but here is one of him right before he slipped back into the creek (there is some sand and a piece of grass on his back):

The Blob!!!

Leech on Rock

I wish I had been brave enough to hold him so you could see just how big he was. Scrunched up like he is in the picture he would fill up the palm of my hand, but he could stretch out until he was a good seven inches long (*shudders*). Here he looks like a slug, but when he stretched out he looked more like an eel. I tried to find out what type of leech he was, but I didn't have any luck. If I ever do find out I will be sure to post it here!

I did manage to find some great websites about these strange creatures:

Leeches (Australia Museum)

Leeches!

Worm World: Larry Leech (They have a picture of one that is kind of pretty!)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

OK -- so now I KNOW you have too much time on your hands --- leeches??? Actually it is rather interesting -- the life of a country gal. Love the blog -- keep up the good work.

Melinda said...

Well, this leech sort of found us, so he's the one with all the extra time on his hands, LOL!!!!

Anonymous said...

The leech found you and got "attached" to you so decided to "stick" around -- arr, arr!!
(My bad...)