Most people think of leeches as nasty bloodsucking creatures with little or no worth, and no interesting behaviors, let alone any parenting skills, but this popular percepti
…on of them is way off the mark. A common misconception about leeches is that there is only one kind of leech. In fact, there are between 700 and 1000 species of leeches worldwide and they can be found in a variety of different habitats including marine, estuarine, moist terrestrial (particularly in Australia and Southeast Asia) and freshwater ecosystems. What do leeches eat? Contrary to popular belief, not all of them are bloodsuckers. In fact, many of them are sit-and-wait predators and feed on a variety of different invertebrates such as insects (gnats, mosquito larvae, water bugs), oligochaetes (both aquatic blackworms and their terrestrial cousins, the earthworms), amphipods (side swimmers), and lots of different kinds of molluscs including pond snails and freshwater clams. These predacious leeches are either engulfers (ie. they swallow their prey whole) or they are equipped with a protrusible proboscis which resembles a hypodermic needle. When not in use, the proboscis is retracted into the mouth, but when a leech has located a prey item, the proboscis pops out of the mouth and the leech uses it to spear its prey and then, once the prey is subdued, the leech uses the hollow proboscis like a soda straw and sucks up the juices of its prey. Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_type_of_foods_do_leeches_eat#ixzz1vBlQnK59 (MORE)