On a leech (Trocheta subviridis, Dutroch.) found in the viscera of a Moluccan deer (Cervus moluccensis, Müller) / by James Murie.

  • Murie, James.
Date:
[1865]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On a leech (Trocheta subviridis, Dutroch.) found in the viscera of a Moluccan deer (Cervus moluccensis, Müller) / by James Murie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    been accidentally swallowed by the Deer while drinking water. My attention was further called more fully to ascertain its specific iden- tity by its recalling to my mind a notice of a large Leech found in the neighbourhood of the Regent's Park by Mr. Hoffmann, and de- scribed by Dr. Gray as being entirely new to the British fauna (see Proc. Zool. Soc. 1850, p. 52). With the assistance of Dr. Baird at the British Museum, I was enabled by comparison to ascertain that this Leech which had been found in the Deer was no other than the species commented on by Dr. Gray, namely the Trocheta subviridis (Dutroch.) referred to by Lamarck in An. sans Vert. vol. v. 2nd edit. p. 523, and also de- scribed and figured by De Blainville in the Diet, de Scien. Nat. xlvii. 24(i, Iviii. 559, Atlas pi. Hirud. fig. 6. Besides, in the monograph of the family by M. Moquin-Tandon (p. 309, pi. 4), there is a de- tailed account and excellent figures of the external appearance and internal anatomy of this species of Leech, where 8 to 12 or 13 cen- timetres is given as the size it occasionally reaches, and it is said not to be terrestrial, as the author kept one fifteen days in water in good health. The specimen first found by Mr. HoflFmann near or in the Regent's Park now forms part of the National Collection, and is referred to in the ' Catalogue of British Non-parasitical Worms,' 1865, p. 45. It is there stated to have been 7 inches long when in the fresh condition, and now, after being preserved in spirits, as much as 6 inches in length with a breadth of half an inch. The distinctive features of Trocheta subviridis are its great size, its large shield-like sucker, the uniformity and narrowness of the rings, and the tail-sucker being upon the ventral aspect—with all of which our present specimen agrees. It also differs from Hirudo medicinalis and Hcemopis sanguisuga in the form of its jaws, and in having but eight eyes, whereas these have ten. The eyes I could not detect; but, according to M. Tandon, they are occasionally absent or with difficulty made out. Obtaining this second specimen of a large and rare Leech in the same vicinity as the last, it might be looked upon as conclusive that it was an animal indigenous to Britain, as Dr. Gray has surmised, had I not other facts to detract from this supposition. It may either be said that the specimen obtained from the Deer found its way thither by being swallowed among the food or water, as the animal partook of these in the Gardens; and this fact would strengthen the belief of its British habitat; or, in opposition to this, it may be suggested that the ova, or Leech while young, may have been taken into the viscera of the Deer in its own native country previously to being shipped for England. Dr. Baird holds that this last opinion is not tenable, upon the grounds that in a voyage of several months it would be sure to die itself or pass through the Deer. But in contradiction to his judg- ment, Mr. Bartlett relates to me the case of a similar large Leech having been obtained from a Yak {Bos grxmniens. Linn.) on board ship, and before the animal had set foot on these shores. This oc- [2]