Graduate Students Describe New North American Leech main content.

Graduate Students Describe New North American Leech

by AMNH on

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Placobdella kwetlumye, shown with eggs attached to the ventral side of the parent. 
Photo: Robin M. Overstreet.





Kvist and Oceguera-Figueroa say that the distinguishing characteristic of the Pkwetlumye species is its single pair of compact salivary glands instead of the usual two. They chose the name kwetlumye from the Native American Nlaka’pamux language, which was once spoken in the area of Washington State where the leech was discovered. Kwetlumye means bloodsucker or leech.

Kvist and Oceguera-Figueroa’s research was funded by a Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Grant for the study of North American fauna through the Museum’s Richard Gilder Graduate School and was published late last year in American Museum Novitates, a peer-reviewed scientific journal of the Museum.

