Leeches of the St. Mary's River Watershed and leech records of the Nova Scotia Museum (Curatorial Report #11)

Abstract

During the summer of 1972, the science section of the Nova Scotia Museum undertook a limited program of general field collecting in the St. Mary's River watershed in order to support an interpretive program at the Sherbrooke Village Project. Results from the 1972 study did not adequately fulfill the requirements of the interpretive program. It was decided that this might best be done by continuing the field work during the summer of 1973, but by selecting discrete research topics, each of which would be independently pursued by the various members of the science staff.

From a scientific point of view, one of the more neglected groups of animals in this province is the leeches. Leeches in the Nova Scotia Museum collection consisted of relatively few specimens of three or four species, many of which were in poor condition. On this basis, the choice of this topic was considered an excellent opportunity to improve the museums leech collection, compile useful information for the natural history interpretation center at Sherbrooke and contribute valuable records to leech distributions in Canada. Included in this report is a resume of the leech records for Nova Scotia found in the literature, records of specimens in the Nova Scotia Museum prior to the St. Mary's River study, records of specimens taken during the study, and records of Nova Scotian specimens in the National Museum.

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