Reproduction/Development
How it Works:
The leech is a hermaphrodite which basically means that is male and female. This allows it to create offspring with itself (asexual). The leech can have the offspring in 2 ways:
1. By creating cocoons which they place in a safe place for developing
2. By carrying the baby on itself
After the baby is born the parent(s) defends and feed the young leech till it is old enough to protect itself. Then the process repeats.
1. By creating cocoons which they place in a safe place for developing
2. By carrying the baby on itself
After the baby is born the parent(s) defends and feed the young leech till it is old enough to protect itself. Then the process repeats.
More Facts About Leech Reproduction/Development
- The reproductive organ for most leeches is a pair of gonopores (opening where egg and sperm is released)
- As stated before the leech is hermaphrodite which allows is to have babies with itself (asexual).
- Leeches go through internal fertilization, a process in which they send there sperm to their eggs which eventually develop into babies
- Leeches have 13 pairs of chromosomes
- Leeches can have up to 300 babies
Mitosis vs. Meiosis
Mitosis is a process in which a cell duplicates its self with an end result of 2 identical daughter cells. The way it preforms this is by going through 4 different stages represented in the diagram below:
Meiosis is different where 4 gametes (sex cells) are created and each one contains half the number of chromosomes as the original cell would have, this process is shown in the diagram below: