WinAce

Wow. Thanks for the favorable comments, everyone. Now to answer some specific queries...

Great suggestion! FYI, here's a PDF journal article on the subject of parasitic ants a friend sent me.

Oh, and also thanks for the (latter) suggestion about Dicrocoelium dendriticum. But I make no guarantees of including that one.

Nah, there are much better sources for sober info on parasites. I like going parody all the way in a somewhat over-the-top manner.


Thanks. I'll link to your homepage in a sec, likewise.

I decided to stay on-topic and focused only on horrendously scary critters for this article. I couldn't resist putting in the bee orchid as comic relief, though.

Thanks for the suggestions about the botflies and schistosomes. I might work in the former under my existing blowfly section (just as I did with mange/sand fleas), because they look quite similar in modus operandi. The botfly egg's intermediate host (yes, I will check) sounds fascinating.

Also, I simply left the Babirusa's description of the ever-growing curving tusks at "pierces the head" and removed the dying reference until someone confirms that it can kill them from a halfway-reliable source.

*Shudder after Google search* Thanks for the suggestion... I can't believe I forgot to include a haemmorhaging disease like Ebola.

I don't know whether there's anything special about the dysentery parasite which would warrant inclusion. There are, after all, thousands of parasites like that. I want to include only the best on my page!

And what about jawless fish? Do they have some awful behavior most people would cringe at? My knowledge in that area is limited.

Thanks for that nail-biting aversion therapy, by the way.

I think I considered that one earlier but dumped it in favor of Sacculina... But I must have been not-entirely-sober, cause that's a great one!! I'll almost certainly include it should I update the page again.

Those can be so much more fun than webpage-making

No worries. Unless you hermetically seal yourself in and irradiate everything with enough rads to kill yourself, you're gonna keep carrying lotsa parasites.

Hahahaha! That made my day. Watching them squirm and wiggle their way out of admitting God designed parasitism is hilarious.

I'll probably end up updating that article again with at least some of these cool suggestions. I won't make it excessively bigger, though. That can get downright distracting. I'd rather have 5 organisms that make people cry then 15 that just make them nauseous.

Steve_F

I would!

Duvenoy

Lamprays and hagfishes are grotesque to anything but another lampray or hagfish. The lampray in particular might qualify for the list.

It is an exoparasite of other fishes and a particular problem to lake trout in the Great Lakes. Using it's mouth as a sucker, it bores into a fish with the radula on it;s tongue. Then, it proceeds to suck the body fluids from it's host, isn't that neat?

Hagfish are deepsea scavengers. They bore into a corpse, usually but not necessarly of a fish, and comsume it from the inside. When alarmed, they produce an incredable quality of mucus, completly enveloping themselves in a cocoon of it. Yuk!

In recent years, a commercial market for hags has sprung up, both for the meat and their skins. Lamprays have no such value, I don't know why. It moght be a solution to the problem they cause -- they are highly prolific.

doov

MrDarwin

If you have an "eelskin" wallet, you actually have a hagfish wallet.

Aria

Why would anyone want to eat a hagfish?

Peez

Well, the hagfishes (Myxini) are pretty disgusting (they produce scads of slimey stuff for protection), but more likely you want to hear about lampreys (Cephalaspidomorphi). Having no jaw, they have a circular mouth similar to a suction cup. It has many horney teeth on the inner surface of the mouth, which it uses to latch on to some hapless fish (I love the word "hapless" ). What is really neat is that it has a tongue, and the tongue has teeth as well. It uses these teeth to rasp into the side of the fish so that it can suck the living juices out. Yum. Here are a couple of pics.

While on the topic of Lampreys, it is pretty clear that Lampreys are "fish." Like all fish, they have fins and gills (plus a host of other shared structures). Like sharks and rays, they have a skeleton of cartilage, including a notochord, and lack a swim bladder or lungs. They even have simple ‘proto-vertebrae.' On the other hand, they have more gills than cartilagenous or bony fish (seven pairs of gills rather than five), do not have scales or paired lateral fins, and go through a larval stage which is quite different from the adult. In fact, this larval stage is quite similar to a lancelet (Amphioxus, Cephalacordata) or the larva of a sea squirt (tunicate, Urochordata). The latter two are invertebrates.

The bottom line is that lampreys are excellent examples of living "transitional forms."

Peez

Jet Black

quick post to thank winace for the excellent article about the ants

Duvenoy

I've been told that it's not bad. I don't know from experience though.

But perhaps we might. A lot of fish at the seafood market is sold under names made up by the market.

I believe that most of the meat goes to Japan.

doov

Myrmecos

Here's the parasitic ant Polyergus breviceps:

http://www.myrmecos.net/polyergus.html

Myrmecos

**************
www.myrmecos.net

DougP

Some of those really creeped me out. Im paranoid now, ick ick ick