Hirudo medicinalis
E393479
Hirudo medicinalis is the European medicinal leech, a blood-sucking annelid historically and currently used in medicine for bloodletting and microsurgical procedures.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Hirudo medicinalis canonical | 2 |
| European medicinal leech | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T3841520 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Hirudo medicinalis Context triple: [Clitellata, notableMember, Hirudo medicinalis]
-
A.
Aedes Castoris
Aedes Castoris is the Latin name for the ancient Roman Temple of Castor and Pollux in the Roman Forum, dedicated to the mythological twin brothers.
-
B.
Vermes
Vermes is the surname of Peter Vermes, a former American soccer player and current coach known for his long tenure with Sporting Kansas City.
-
C.
Musca
Musca is a small southern constellation representing a fly, located near the Southern Cross in the southern sky.
-
D.
Branchiostoma
Branchiostoma is a genus of small, fish-like lancelets that are key model organisms in evolutionary biology for understanding the early evolution of chordates.
-
E.
Ancylus fluviatilis
Ancylus fluviatilis is a small freshwater limpet-like snail (an aquatic gastropod mollusk) commonly found in European rivers and streams.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Hirudo medicinalis Target entity description: Hirudo medicinalis is the European medicinal leech, a blood-sucking annelid historically and currently used in medicine for bloodletting and microsurgical procedures.
-
A.
Aedes Castoris
Aedes Castoris is the Latin name for the ancient Roman Temple of Castor and Pollux in the Roman Forum, dedicated to the mythological twin brothers.
-
B.
Vermes
Vermes is the surname of Peter Vermes, a former American soccer player and current coach known for his long tenure with Sporting Kansas City.
-
C.
Musca
Musca is a small southern constellation representing a fly, located near the Southern Cross in the southern sky.
-
D.
Branchiostoma
Branchiostoma is a genus of small, fish-like lancelets that are key model organisms in evolutionary biology for understanding the early evolution of chordates.
-
E.
Ancylus fluviatilis
Ancylus fluviatilis is a small freshwater limpet-like snail (an aquatic gastropod mollusk) commonly found in European rivers and streams.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (53)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
annelid
ⓘ
leech ⓘ species ⓘ |
| approvedMedicalUse |
adjunct therapy in plastic surgery
ⓘ
treatment of venous congestion after tissue transplantation ⓘ |
| binomialName | Hirudo medicinalis ⓘ |
| bodyLength | 10–15 cm ⓘ |
| bodySegments | 33 segments ⓘ |
| bodyShape | elongated cylindrical body ⓘ |
| class | Clitellata ⓘ |
| commonName |
European medicinal leech
ⓘ
linked to:
Hirudo medicinalis
medicinal leech ⓘ |
| conservationStatus | near threatened ⓘ |
| cultivatedIn | leech farms ⓘ |
| describedBy | Carl Linnaeus ⓘ |
| diet | blood of vertebrates ⓘ |
| domain |
Eukaryota
ⓘ
linked to:
Eukarya
|
| family | Hirudinidae ⓘ |
| feedingType | hematophagous ⓘ |
| habitat |
freshwater ponds
ⓘ
marshes ⓘ slow-moving freshwater bodies ⓘ |
| hasSucker |
anterior sucker
ⓘ
posterior sucker ⓘ |
| host |
humans
ⓘ
livestock ⓘ wild mammals ⓘ |
| kingdom | Animalia ⓘ |
| nativeTo |
Europe
ⓘ
western Asia ⓘ
linked to:
Western Asia
|
| order |
Arhynchobdellida
ⓘ
linked to:
Clitellata
|
| parentTaxon | Hirudo ⓘ |
| phylum | Annelida ⓘ |
| produces | cocoons for egg laying ⓘ |
| regulatedBy |
CITES Appendix II
ⓘ
linked to:
CITES Appendices
|
| reproduction |
hermaphroditic
ⓘ
sexual reproduction ⓘ |
| secretes |
anesthetic substances
ⓘ
anticoagulant substances ⓘ hirudin ⓘ vasodilator substances ⓘ |
| taxonRank | species ⓘ |
| threatenedBy |
habitat loss
ⓘ
overharvesting ⓘ |
| usedExtensivelyIn | 19th-century European medicine ⓘ |
| usedFor |
bloodletting
ⓘ
hirudotherapy ⓘ improving venous outflow after digit replantation ⓘ microsurgical procedures ⓘ plastic and reconstructive surgery ⓘ relief of venous congestion in reattached tissues ⓘ |
| usedSince | antiquity ⓘ |
| yearDescribed | 1758 ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Hirudo medicinalis Description of subject: Hirudo medicinalis is the European medicinal leech, a blood-sucking annelid historically and currently used in medicine for bloodletting and microsurgical procedures.
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: Hirudo medicinalis