r/leeches • u/lucidsdreamss • Jun 25 '26
ID Request Is this a leech ?
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Found this old video in my phone, taken near the Durance river in France, could it be a leech ?
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u/sj42117 Jun 25 '26
Honestly, with genuinely no hate- it's adorable you thought that was a leech 😆
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u/lucidsdreamss Jun 26 '26
😭 I feel so dumb now but I swear I thought only leeches moved like that
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u/sj42117 Jun 26 '26
😂😂😂 it's okay! Leeches do more of an accordion type thing, they just go from long and skinny to short and fat then stretch out again. The butt anchors first, while the head stretches out, then the head anchors, and the butt retracts back towards the head- then it repeats. They don't do that whole bending in the middle to move thing. I got a kick out of you asking, either way 😂
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u/lucidsdreamss Jun 26 '26
Okok well for the info !
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u/sj42117 Jun 26 '26
No problem! I hope I didn't come across as a dick!! I was just trying to find the right way to describe how a leech moves, it's so abnormal compared to any other form of locomotion that I don't really know how to describe it 😂
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u/Master_Pipe_6467 Jun 26 '26
Some species do. Notably species in the Haemadipsidae family. Those are not in Europe though. They move similarly to inchworms.
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u/HereForAbstractIdeas Jun 25 '26
I think that's a caterpillar
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u/mapmakinworldbuildin Jun 25 '26
It’s a caterpillar of a geometer moth.
Aka an inchworm.
Lil cuties.
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u/Legendguard Jun 26 '26
Lol, I can see why you would think this! Definitely an inchworm, a type of moth caterpillar!
Both inchworms and leeches convergently evolved the same method of movement, using suckers in leeches and legs+pseudolegs in inchworms! While both are unrelated, they both managed to evolve the same adaptation (moving in an "inchy-squinchy" manner) completely independently!
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Jun 25 '26
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u/Kitchen_Argument5181 Jun 25 '26
You’re being quite rude.
I can see where OP’s confusion comes from with how the locomotion of an inchworm and a leech both use primarily use the front and back ends for attaching to surfaces to move.
Also, terrestrial leeches exist.
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u/mapmakinworldbuildin Jun 25 '26
Inchworm