Almost 700 species of leeches are currently recognized, of which some 100 are marine, 90 terrestrial and the remainder freshwater taxa.Leeches, such as the Hirudo medicinalis, have been historically used in medicine to remove blood from patients. Most leeches are hematophagous, as they are predominantly blood suckers that feed on blood from vertebrate and invertebrate animals. They also have two suckers, one at each end.The majority of leeches live in freshwater environments, while some species can be found in terrestrial and marine environments, as well. Their bodies are much more solid as the spaces in their coelom are dense with connective tissues. For example, leeches do not have bristles and the external segmentation of their bodies does not correspond with the internal segmentation of their organs. Nevertheless, they differ from other oligochaetes in significant ways. Like other oligochaetes, such as earthworms, leeches share a clitellum and are hermaphrodites. Leeches are segmented worms that belong to the phylum Annelida and comprise the subclass Hirudinea.
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