Tuesday 13 July 2010

Why'd it have to be snakes leeches?

The rainforest is a fairly benign place. Apart from the stinging trees, of course. And 6m-long scrub pythons that can give a nasty bite. And cassowaries with claws that can razor open an adversary. Not to mention venomous small-eyed snakes that lie just where you're about to put your sandalled foot. But apart from that, there's not much around here that will do lasting damage.

There are, however, bucketloads of animals and plants that will cause inconvenience. I know this, because I've encountered them all. Numerous times.

The leeches are lively at the moment. They lurk in leaf litter and on low vegetation, waiting for a meal to pass by. Most often, that meal is a pademelon, but sometimes that meal is me.

A leech from the garden.

These leeches (family Haemadipsidae) have two cutting jaws, which leave a characteristic wound pattern. (On my heel.) Other families of blood-feeding leeches, such as the medicinal leech, have three jaws that make a Y-shaped incision. A large number of species are jawless and either insert a needle-sharp proboscis into their victim or swallow their prey whole. Fortunately, in the latter case, their prey is usually small, soft-bodied and spineless.

They might turn up anywhere. This one was resting on the garden hose, looking as though it might be digesting a gutful of macropod blood. (Anterior to the right.)

Lateral view of the leech. The posterior sucker (right) is used to anchor the animal.

Business end of the leech. The anterior sucker is just visible as a small, pale halo.