Today a little cherub comes to me and asks me "What is this animal thingy?" and points to a creature on the inside of the test tube, and hands me a magnifying glass. So I am peering at a little brown creature, with two legs coming out of one side only of a soft-looking body, and possibly more legs curled up underneath. Well, I would have called slug at first, except for those damned legs.
We transferred the creature to a petrie dish full of water, and stuck it under a microscope, turned the lamp on, and suddenly there were lots of legs. Lots and LOTS.
Turns out its a leech, that lays "cocoons" (and I quote) onto the underside of its body, and then waits for those to hatch, and tiny fully formed baby leeches hatch out, and then attach to Mama. When they detect a mammal, by its body heat, they run away from Mama and attach for a feed. So all the little legs were baby leeches running for the microscope lamp.
Kids were fascinated, and fizzing with excitement BUT...now I have flasks filled with almost microscopic baby leeches!
So it's gloves on and hot dishwasher time! Yay!
