Guybrush

Heya!

I thought I'd do something about the lack of biology related threads on MB and tried to think of something that would have common appeal. Most people have a gross fascination with parasites, so why not make a thread about those? Thus, I present to you my parasite thread! Feel free to mention or post about your favourite parasites! I'm not an expert, but since I'm a graduate biology student, I should be able to answer some questions should you have them.

Here's comes the first one :








Let's start out nice and easy. Cymothoa exigua is an isopod which means it's a relative of the common terrestrial woodlice. By far, most isopods live in water where they've adapted to different ways of feeding and some have become parasitic. This one removes it's host's tongue, then it attaches itself where the tongue used to be and steals a bit of whatever it is the host tries to eat. The fish host is essentially helpless as the isopod eats it's tongue and makes a living for himself in it's mouth ..

Neat, huh?

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Freebase Dali

Now we know where the queen alien bit her style.

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Janszoon

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A Night in the Life of the Invisible Man

Time & Place

25 Albums You Should Hear Before the Moon Crashes into the Earth and We All Die

last.fm

Scarlett O'Hara

Here's a good one, and by the way, is it true that parasites can get into your brain and cause you to slow down? My neighbour was telling me it is a big cause of people having car accidents. I thought he was crazy, he was getting blood tests to check for them.

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Guybrush

Are you crazy? Thanks for teaching me stuff about the remora fish .. I've always wondered about those little suckers!

There are ways (like with the pork tapeworm), something that travels in your blood can end up in the brain. Your neighbour sounds paranoid though, I don't think there's a need to worry about that.

Thanks to Bulldog for the bot-fly post and also thanks to [paranoid.android] and Vanilla for icky pictures!


The little worm in the eye looks a bit like a nematode worm which is what the next parasite also is. Wuchereria bancrofti is one of more parasites that has a life stage that can live in people's lymphatic system, the body's conduit network where lymph sloshes about. The other stage is in mosquitos, so mosquito bites is how you get them.





Wuchereria bancrofti looks perhaps relatively harmless and one probably wouldn't cause so much damage. However, when they become many, they clog up your lymphatic system which causes lymph to accumulate in those areas and your body starts swelling up (other factors such as immune responses might also add to the swelling). This swell condition (pun) is called elephantitis and the swelling usually takes place in the arms, legs or the scrotum.









As you can probably imagine, these swollen parts are full of little worms just enjoying life in the lymph. Having elephantitis might not kill you, but it can severly disable you or even make you really ugly.

I would not want to travel to a place where there's a chance of getting these little suckers!

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Thrice

Ha ha! Good one

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Lew Harrison, who looked like an anarchist with his red eyes and fierce black beard, had been writing furiously in one corner of the room. "That's good—happiness by the kilowatt," he said. "Buy your happiness the way you buy light."

Scarlett O'Hara

Yeah I think my neighbour has a screw loose sometimes! But screw a parasite getting into your brain anyhow!

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Freebase Dali

^ lol. Classic.

Poor Tore. We're making a mockery of his thread.
Lemme go find a disgusting parasite picture that can top the Paris Hilton one.

Heh.. found one.
I'm not posting it.

*goes vomit*

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right-track

The scouser.
Worse parasite known to mankind.
Capable of bleeding a national economy dry, via excessive claims of state benefit.

Guybrush

Oh har har, very funny :p Despite your feeble attempts at derailing this thread, I'll steer it back on track!

Since I started out with a fish parasite, I'll do another fish pest.



Oh Darwin, what's happened to these fish? Why, they have fallen victims to malevolent lampreys! Lampreys are jawless and relatively "primitive" fish that are much closer related to hagfish than they are to cod and salmon. Some of them are parasitic and use their funnel like mouth full of sharp little teeth to latch onto their prey. Then they bore a hole into their victims with their sharp, jagged tongues and live off their bodily fluids.







Some of the sea lamprey species reportedly get very large and are even rumoured to attack swimmers.





Once a month, they crawl up on beaches and howl at the moon. Or - at least it would be cool if they did. Watch out the next time you go for a swim in the sea, a lake or a river!

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