White men can’t jump, but terrestrial leeches can. This is now a scientific fact; after centuries of anecdotal reports, the parasites have been caught on video leaping from leaves in the Madagascan ...

A chance video by a grad student relishing her first big field trip might help resolve an argument that’s raged among biologists for more than a century. The question: Can leeches jump? Yes, at least ...

Ken Grewe plunges his hand into the bottom of a small, black plastic bag - as if he were searching for remaining treats in a sack of candy. What Grewe is seeking is anything but sweet. Like he has for ...

Northumbria University, Newcastle provides funding as a member of The Conversation UK. As we tidy away the Dracula capes and glow-in-the-dark plastic fangs for another winter, one notorious blood ...

WALKER, Minn. — Minnesota's third-largest lake has a namesake only an angler could love: the leech. Earthworm's ugly aquatic cousin. Those slimy, crawly creatures straight out of a horror film. But ...

It's the beginning of the spooky season, which means ghouls, ghosts, and bloodsuckers abound. One of the most famous bloodsuckers in nature is, of course, the leech. These parasites feed on blood and ...

A 430-million-year-old fossil has rewritten leech history, showing they are at least 200 million years older than previously believed. Unlike today’s bloodsucking leeches, their ancient ancestors ...

Leeches might seem like relics of a bygone age of medicine, but they haven’t outlived their usefulness to people yet. The freshwater leech Helobdella austinensis can eat its weight in snails every day ...

Bloodsucking land leeches are tiny but tenacious creatures: they can use their suckers to crawl in search of prey and perhaps can even fall on their targets from trees. But scientists have long ...