Prettiest leeches I've ever seen!
These are local Placobdella parasitica (smooth turtle leeches) I pulled off of our permanent-rehab pond sliders. While these critters can evade detection on healthy aquatic turtles by staying under the shell and behind the legs, they're given an advantage over turtles with deformed/injured shells and turtles with less leg functionality, (assumedly) allowing them to multiply over more surface area.
I will be taking these two (live) specimens to my bio lab on Tuesday. I removed a large cluster of juveniles that I have since humanely euthanized from a large pond slider to bring in as well. The two live specimens are mature adults and will be released after lab examination.
Unfortunately, there is not much in terms of information on these guys. Hopefully we see more about them in the future!
