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Of the 650 species of leech listed, Hirudo medicinalis is one of the most extensively studied. This annelid from the subclass Hirudinea has 2 suckers, one housing the mouth and its 3 jaws. It lives mainly in the stagnant waters of marshes and ponds. When it comes to reproduction, the animal is a hermaphrodite. Inseminated leeches lay their eggs during the spring and summer months, outside the water, with cocoons containing as many as thirty young.
Leeches are famous as blood-suckers. The species that feed on blood have special chemicals in their saliva that prevents blood-clotting. Many blood-feeding leeches attack only fish, a few attack any vertebrate (including people), and a few are specialists on another group of animals, like turtles or waterbirds. There are also lots of leech species that don't suck blood. They are predators, eating worms, snails, aquatic insects, and other invertebrates.