Information about a leech:
Leech's are a member of segmented worms. Leeches belong to the class Hirundinea a minority (over 300 species). They are characterized by having suckers at both ends of the body.Leeches feed on worms, snails, and insect larvae, and are usually swallowed whole. About three quarters of the known species are blood-sucking parasites, and these attack include invertebrates, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. They usually stay with with one class of vertebrates, for example, a leech which normally feeds on reptiles will rarely attack a mammal. When leeches attack an animal, the animal is usually not aware of the attack. They can ingest an amount of blood two to five times its own weight, and can survive up to a year and a half without feeding.
Lab:
The tools we used in the lab were tongs, beaker, dissection tray, pins, scissors, forceps, probe, dissecting microscope, scalpel, anetize, oscilloscope micromanipulater, and a feather. For the lab we used a piece of the skin from the the leech and used the oscilloscope to see the cells. When you find a cell you hear sound and its the oscilloscope feeding into the audio amplifier, which gives you audio feedback to what you see on the screen. While looking at the skin you use either a feather, probe or forceps. If the cell responds to weak its the feather, if tis medium its the probe and if its strong its the forceps. Their is a pattern to it. The oscilloscope will have the cell fire potentials or spikes when you click on the cell. Also once you click on a part you can use dye to see morphology of the neuron.
