What is the main function of leeches?

The main function of leech is that it can be used as a valuable Chinese herbal medicine after processing.

Most leeches live in fresh water, a few in salt water, and some in land and amphibians. There are species that feed on blood or body fluids, and there are also species that prey on small animals. People's common leeches in rice fields are called Japanese medical leeches, which feed on the blood of people, livestock and frogs. There are some grasshoppers living in the forests of Hainan Island and Taiwan Province Province. They often lurk in the grass and bushes.

In recent years, due to the threat of chemical fertilizers and pesticides to its living environment and predatory capture by human beings, the wild resources of leeches are decreasing day by day. In order to meet the market demand, the artificial breeding industry of leeches has developed rapidly.

Extended data

Leeches generally have a flat back and abdomen and a narrow front end, all of which are leaflike or wormlike. Body shape will change with the degree of stretching or the amount of food you eat. The body is segmented, and the front and rear body segments evolve into suction cups. The front sucker is small and often surrounds the mouth; The rear sucker is cup-shaped and mostly faces the ventral surface. Except echinoderms, the segments are relatively fixed, which indicates that they have close genetic relationship and high specificity.

Leeches are the only annelids with few fixed joints, so they are more flexible than most other annelids. By counting the number of ganglia and lateral nerve branches, we can know the number of body segments.

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