Washington, D.C., has seen its fair share of leeches and parasites, but a new one of the blood-sucking variety has been discovered in a swamp around the nation’s capital.
Scientists said that the new species Macrobdella mimicus, has been around for a while, but appeared very similar to another species of the parasite. Smithsonian research zoologist Anna Phillips and her colleagues discovered the parasite in 2015, and after much research, released their findings this month in the Journal of Parasitology.
The creature is the first new species of leech discovered on the continent in more than 40 years. The bloodsucker is olive-green, has orange spots, is about as long as cigarette and as wide as two. It has three jaws, each containing 56 to 59 teeth that it uses to clasp onto its prey, slurping up to five times its body weight in blood.
As part of the investigation into the species, scientists discovered the leeches don’t just live around the Washington area. Phillips told the Smithsonian she dipped into the museum collections across the country, including the Smithsonian’s own collection, which contains more than 5,000 leech specimens.
Phillips said that without the historical leech specimens, “it wouldn’t have been possible to know the species so well.”
From their research, it was discovered that the parasite has a large range, spanning from northern Georgia to Long Island, New York. Phillips noted that the species has been right in front of researchers’ eyes all along, with one specimen from New York dating back to 1937.
“It’s not something new that’s come up; it’s something that has been there the whole time, unrecognized,” Phillips said.
“You don’t have to go very far to find something new,” she added.
