Just read an article titled "House guests from He**".
It covered half a dozen different parasites from all over the world that are really creepy. Just thought I would share 2 of them that are present in water. Text and photos are from the magazine "Mental Floss".
If you creep out easily I am not responsible for your nightmares from scrolling down and viewing the pictures!
That being said lets take a look at contestant number one.
Sacculina carcini
A female sacculina starts life as a tiny free-floating slug in the sea, drifting around until she encounters a crab. When that fate-ful day arrives, she finds a chink in the crab's armor (usually an elbow or leg joint) and thrusts a kind of hollow dagger into its body. After that, she (how to put this?) "injects" herself into the crab, sluicing through the dagger and leaving behind a husk. Once inside, the jellylike sacculina starts to take over. She grows "roots" that extend to every part of the crab's body, wrapping around its eyestalks and deep into its legs and arms. The female feeds until eventually she pops out of the top of the crab, and from this knobby protrusion, she will steer the Good Ship Unlucky Crab for the rest of their commingled life. Packed full of parasite the crab will forgo its own needs to serve those of its master. It won't molt, grow reproductive organs, or attempt to reproduce. It won't even regrow appendages, as healthy crabs can. Rather than waste the nutrients on itself, a host crab will hobble along and continue to look for food with which to feed its parasite master.
Creepy contestant number two looks more like something from a sci-fi movie, meet Cymothoa exigua.
As a youngster, this nasty little parasitic crustacean begins a life of terror by fighting its way through the gills of its fish host of choice, the snapper. Once there, it attaches itself to the fish's tongue and begins feeding on the rich blood pumping through the artery underneath. As the parasite grows, it drinks more blood and eventually causes the tongue to atrophy and disintegrate. But does the Cymothoa mouth-squatter leave its fishy friend tongueless> Of course not. If does what any crafty parasite would do and replaces the old tongue with its own body. The fish is actually able to use the parasite just like a normal tongue, only it has to share all the food with its new friend. Yes, the whole forter-tongue thing seems like a pretty nice gesture on the part of ol' Cymothoa, until you remember there was nothing wrong with the fish's old tongue in the first place!
This is Sacculina carcini on a crab.
Here is Ceratothoa imbricata (a close relitive of Cymothoa exigua) in the mouth of a blacktail Diplodus sargus from South Africa.
It covered half a dozen different parasites from all over the world that are really creepy. Just thought I would share 2 of them that are present in water. Text and photos are from the magazine "Mental Floss".
If you creep out easily I am not responsible for your nightmares from scrolling down and viewing the pictures!
That being said lets take a look at contestant number one.
Sacculina carcini
A female sacculina starts life as a tiny free-floating slug in the sea, drifting around until she encounters a crab. When that fate-ful day arrives, she finds a chink in the crab's armor (usually an elbow or leg joint) and thrusts a kind of hollow dagger into its body. After that, she (how to put this?) "injects" herself into the crab, sluicing through the dagger and leaving behind a husk. Once inside, the jellylike sacculina starts to take over. She grows "roots" that extend to every part of the crab's body, wrapping around its eyestalks and deep into its legs and arms. The female feeds until eventually she pops out of the top of the crab, and from this knobby protrusion, she will steer the Good Ship Unlucky Crab for the rest of their commingled life. Packed full of parasite the crab will forgo its own needs to serve those of its master. It won't molt, grow reproductive organs, or attempt to reproduce. It won't even regrow appendages, as healthy crabs can. Rather than waste the nutrients on itself, a host crab will hobble along and continue to look for food with which to feed its parasite master.
Creepy contestant number two looks more like something from a sci-fi movie, meet Cymothoa exigua.
As a youngster, this nasty little parasitic crustacean begins a life of terror by fighting its way through the gills of its fish host of choice, the snapper. Once there, it attaches itself to the fish's tongue and begins feeding on the rich blood pumping through the artery underneath. As the parasite grows, it drinks more blood and eventually causes the tongue to atrophy and disintegrate. But does the Cymothoa mouth-squatter leave its fishy friend tongueless> Of course not. If does what any crafty parasite would do and replaces the old tongue with its own body. The fish is actually able to use the parasite just like a normal tongue, only it has to share all the food with its new friend. Yes, the whole forter-tongue thing seems like a pretty nice gesture on the part of ol' Cymothoa, until you remember there was nothing wrong with the fish's old tongue in the first place!
This is Sacculina carcini on a crab.
Here is Ceratothoa imbricata (a close relitive of Cymothoa exigua) in the mouth of a blacktail Diplodus sargus from South Africa.
