Hirudiniformes
The Hirudiniformes are one of the currently-accepted suborders of the proboscisless leeches (Arhynchobdellida). Their most well-known member is the European medical leech, Hirudo medicinalis, and indeed most of the blood-sucking "worms" as which leeches are generally perceived belong to this group. In general, though some leeches suck blood, many are predators which hunt small invertebrates.
7 branches of this suborder, most-observed first
Jawed Land Leeches
familyHaemadipsidae
Haemopidae
familyHaemopidae
Macrobdellidae
familyMacrobdellidae
Hirudinidae
familyHirudinidae
Cylicobdellidae
familyCylicobdellidae
Praobdellidae
familyPraobdellidae
Xerobdellidae
familyXerobdellidae
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
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In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Hirudiniformes in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 489875.