Evidence
Where all of this came from.
39 reference records rest on 224 published pages, and 109 of those come from state and provincial natural-resources departments. That suits a set of records about what lives in the water those departments survey. The rest is federal survey work, university and extension guides, and interagency reports. The counts are below. Every reviewed line sits behind a record or a search, with the sources standing behind its record.
How to read this
A line is cited as precisely as someone checked it.
Where a reviewer traced a line to the pages that carry it, the line names those pages and, when the evidence is narrower than the record, where it comes from — one coast, one lake, one region. 605 of 1049 of the lines below are traced that way. The rest show the sources standing behind their whole record, marked “record’s sources”, because nobody has yet checked which page carried which line, and printing a single citation there would be a mapping nobody made.
National
52
A federal or national government body — USGS, NOAA, EPA, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Park Service, Fisheries and Oceans Canada.
State
109
A state, provincial or commonwealth natural-resources department. Most of this carrier rests here, which suits it: these are the bodies that survey the water the records describe.
Interagency
12
A commission or joint survey run across several agencies, such as the Great Lakes Fishery Commission's forage task groups.
University
45
A university research programme, cooperative extension service or Sea Grant office. Published work, but not the agency that manages the water.
Journal
6
A peer-reviewed paper, or a curated scientific register such as the World Register of Marine Species. Added with the 2026-09-25 evidence review, which went to the primary study where no agency page said what a claim needed.
Probe leftovers
What the weekly check could not treat as ordinary.
These addresses are still the citations. The check named what it saw. None of them is a gone page in the MISIN sense, so the records were not rewritten to hide a redirect, a timeout, or a bot wall.
Iowa DNR — BluegillMoved
The cited address answers through a permanent redirect. GET on the page that lands still names Bluegill.
A same-site move that still names the animal is not the MISIN case. The citation stays until a reviewer reads the new address into the record.
CASG — market squidUnreachable from this network
The California Sea Grant market-squid page times out from the probe network.
NOAA still covers the same animal on this record. The CASG address stays; a timeout is not a reason to drop a citation.
Mass.gov — menhaden and longfin squidRefused the probe
Both creature-feature pages answered 403 from the probe network.
A bot wall is not evidence the page is gone. The citations stay; the weekly check does not fail the build on unverifiable.
Michigan DNR — crayfish identification PDFRefused the probe
The cited PDF answered 403 from the probe network.
A refused PDF is not a 404. The citation stays on the crayfish record until a reviewer can open it.
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute — silversidesRefused the probe
The Menidia page answered 500 from the probe network.
A 500 is not a 404, and it is not a 403. The citation stays.
Claims
Every reviewed line in the app.
Leech →23 lines
- What you can seeA sucker at each end of the body, the front one often small — the decisive characterMDC-LEECHES, EPA-MACROINVERT-FIELD-GUIDE, UMW-AQUATIC-INVERTS
- What you can seeSegmented, with each segment further wrinkled into annuliMDC-LEECHES, UMW-AQUATIC-INVERTS
- What you can seeNo bristles anywhere on the bodyUMW-AQUATIC-INVERTS
- What you can seeFlattened in cross section, not round like an earthwormMDC-LEECHES, EPA-MACROINVERT-FIELD-GUIDE
- What you can seeExpands and contracts dramatically, so any single length measurement is approximateMDC-LEECHES
- What argues against itBundles of fine bristles along the segments point to an aquatic worm, not a leechUMW-AQUATIC-INVERTS
- What argues against itA flattened body with no segments and no suckers is a planarian or flatwormEPA-MACROINVERT-FIELD-GUIDE, UMW-AQUATIC-INVERTS
- What argues against itBoth leeches and planarians are flattened, so flattening alone separates nothingEPA-MACROINVERT-FIELD-GUIDE
- Declared limitNo source consulted states whether leeches are nocturnal or day-active beyond the observation that they usually avoid light, and none addressed seasonal activity.MDC-LEECHES, UMW-AQUATIC-INVERTS, EPA-MACROINVERT-FIELD-GUIDE
- Declared limitNo source consulted reports leeches in the invertebrate drift.MDC-LEECHES, UMW-AQUATIC-INVERTS, EPA-MACROINVERT-FIELD-GUIDE
- Declared limitThe size range is very wide because leeches stretch; treat any observed length as approximate.record’s sources
- Size bandadult: 5-500 mmUMW-AQUATIC-INVERTS, MDC-LEECHES
- Water typelake-marginrecord’s sources
- Water typeriverrecord’s sources
- Water typestreamrecord’s sources
- Water typereservoirrecord’s sources
- Life stageadultrecord’s sources
- Where it sitson vegetation, under stones and logs, or in bottom muckMDC-LEECHES, UMW-AQUATIC-INVERTS
- Where it sitswarm calm shallow water, especially where weed is thickMDC-LEECHESEvidence from: Missouri
- How it movesswimmingEPA-MACROINVERT-FIELD-GUIDE, MDC-TUBIFICID-WORMS
- How it moveslooping along like an inchworm using both suckersMDC-LEECHES
- How it movesusually avoids lightMDC-LEECHES
- Sources disagreeSucker count is worded differently. Missouri says there is a sucker at each end; EPA's Pacific Northwest guide gives front and rear suckers but says the front one may be small; the Upper Midwest guide says a suction disc is present at one or both ends.record’s sources
- Missouri Department of ConservationMDC-LEECHES · State · read 2026-09-02
- Water Resources Center, University of MinnesotaUMW-AQUATIC-INVERTS · University · read 2026-09-25
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 10 (prepared by the Xerces Society)EPA-MACROINVERT-FIELD-GUIDE · National · read 2026-09-25
- Missouri Department of ConservationMDC-TUBIFICID-WORMS · State · read 2026-09-02
- West Virginia Department of Environmental ProtectionWV-DEP-BENTHIC-GUIDE · State · read 2026-08-24
The pages themselves
All 224, and what each one is holding up.
- Missouri Department of Conservation
MDC-LEECHES
- Missouri Department of Conservation
MDC-TUBIFICID-WORMS
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 10 (prepared by the Xerces Society)
EPA-MACROINVERT-FIELD-GUIDE
- Water Resources Center, University of Minnesota
UMW-AQUATIC-INVERTS
- West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection
WV-DEP-BENTHIC-GUIDE
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