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Parasites.
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» Trey replied on Fri Nov 7, 2008 @ 10:06am |
 Coolness: 102985 | Brief list of parasites.
"Aliens", eat your heart out. My fav is the Cymothoa exigua and Voodoo wasps. Cymothoa exigua Cymothoa exigua is a parasitic crustacean like no other, as it does not just live in its host but actually replaces part of it. First it attaches itself at the base of the tongue of the chosen fish, with the claws on its front three pairs of legs, and begins to extract blood. As the parasite grows, less and less blood is able to reach the tongue, and eventually the organ atrophies and dies, at which time the parasite attaches to the muscles of the tongue stub replacing the tongue with its own body. The fish is able to use the parasite as a fully functional tongue and the parasite survives on food particles, relieving the stress on the host’s appropriated circulatory system. 
Blood Fluke One of the more exotic types, the blood fluke, lurks in the tropics and burrows through skin to enter the bloodstream, then heads for the bladder where they can reside for up to 30 years! Blood flukes will continue laying eggs that are so spiney they can rupture the bladder wall. For a gut-wrenching scare, look no further than the pencil-like round worm. One of out of every four people on the planet has one of these living in their stomach, feasting on the same food they eat. 
Sacculina A tiny barnacle called Sacculina is one such parasite. Upon finding a host crab, a female Sacculina will crawl over the crab's surface until she finds a chink in the armor: a joint. She then ejects her protective shell, reducing herself to a gelatinous blob, and invades. Inside the host, the parasite grows long, root-like tendrils throughout the crab's body, eventually emerging as a bump on the its underside. During this process she renders the crab infertile, and creates a small opening in the crab's back that will allow a male Sacculina to make residence there. Soon the crab is filled with millions of Sacculina eggs and larvae, and like a zombie, the crab cares for these eggs and larvae as though they were its own, losing all interest in mating. When a male crab is infected, the parasite alters its physiology and behavior to be female, to better care for the Sacculina's young. The parasite basically rewires the crab for its own ends, and the crab becomes a helpless vehicle, expending its energy caring for the young organisms that will move on to inflict themselves upon other crabs. 
Ommatokoita elongata Ommatokoita elongata is a soft, worm-like crustacean that spends its days anchored in the eyeball of the greenland shark, feeding on eye jelly. Parasitized sharks are blinded, but function normally and may in fact benefit from the parasite's presence, which appears to attract small fish. 
Wuchereria bancrofti Wuchereria bancrofti is a microscopic nematode responsible for one of the world's strangest and most debilitating diseases: elephantiasis. 
Glochidia The larvae of most, but not all, freshwater clams and mussels must go through a parasitic stage on the gills or fins of fishes. The larvae become attached in the epithelium of the gills or epidermis of the fins. Close examination of the larvae reveals them to look like tiny clams, and some have large hooks that they use to attach to the fish. The larval clams use the fish as a means of transportation, and as a food source by absorbing organic molecules and plasma from the fish. Some species of molluscs use specific species of fish to transport their offspring, others have very little host specificity. Molluscs that use a specific host species may time their spawning with fish migrations. The glochidia remain attached to the fish for usually 10-30 days during which time they undergo metamorphoses to their adult anatomy. The glochidia then drop off the fish and colonize the benthos. 
Lancet fluke (Dicrocoelium dendriticum) Lancet flukes begin life as eggs in the feces of their primary hosts. The eggs are picked up and carried by snails. The larvae form slime balls in the snail, which ejects them through its breathing pore. The larvae are picked up by ants and cause cramping in the ants' jaws. The cramping causes the ants to clamp down on blades of grass and become stuck. The larvae then are eaten by grazing animals, such as sheep and cattle, and develop to the adult stage in the animal's liver. The eggs leave the host in its feces, and the cycle starts over. Adult lancet flukes make both eggs and sperm and either mate with other flukes or fertilize themselves. 
Lungworm Larval lungworms live in pastures, where they climb up blades of grass and wait for a cow to eat them. If a young worm manages to get swallowed, it digs through the cow’s intestinal wall, migrates to its lymph nodes, takes a quick break to molt, then dives into the cow’s bloodstream and gets swept to its lungs. The worm then molts one last time to become an adult, and joins the lungworm orgy rocking on in the bronchi. So the worms (somehow) make the cows cough. Their eggs are coughed up out of the lungs and get swallowed. They hatch in the cow’s intestines, and wind up in the inevitable final product of that particular place: a cow pat. ... if it’s lucky, it’s sharing the cow pat with another organism taking a trip through the cow ecosystem: the fungus Pilobolus. Pilobolus essentially eats dung. And it uses the most expedient method possible to find fresh food: its spores only grow after they’ve passed through an animal’s digestive system. Spores stick to grass, get eaten, and ride through the gut undigested until they get deposited in their own private restaurant. But Pilobolus has the same problem as the lungworm – cows don’t graze where there are lots of cow pats. If its spores are going to get into a cow, they have to leave their natal pat. Fungi don’t have muscles, so they can’t crawl away. But Pilobolus has evolved another, more remarkable solution: its spore packet grows on top of a stalk that fills with pressurized water until it explodes and shoots the spores up to 4 feet away. What does this have to do with worms? If a larval lungworm happens to be in a cow pat that’s growing some Pilobolus, the worm crawls up the fungal stalk, curls up on top of the spores, and waits for the explosion. 
Leucochloridium Zombie caterpillar and Voodoo wasps ( Glyptapanteles ) Phorid fly Female flies are released near mounds, attack ants, and lay eggs inside them. The egg hatches into a tiny maggot that burrows into the ant head. Inside the head, the maggot causes the fire ant head to fall off, killing the ant. The maggot pupates inside the head, and the adult fly squeezes out the ant's mouth. Each newly emerged female fly can attack and kill 200 to 300 more ants. 
Chigoe Chigoe, common name for a burrowing, biting, tropical American flea. It is sometimes also called jigger, jigger flea, or, improperly, chigger, although a chigger is a mite, a different kind of animal pest. Chigoes are smaller than common fleas but otherwise resemble them. The fertile female burrows under the skin of humans and animals and becomes engorged with blood and eggs, causing a painful and sometimes dangerous pea-sized ulcer to form. Chigoes particularly attack the skin of the feet. 
Strepsipteran Strepsipteran larvae parasitize the young of colonial bees and wasps, and mature into highly unusual dimorphic forms. The blind and limbless female remains in the same host for her entire life, her head protruding out through the host's body wall, while males metamorphose into winged adults with highly sophisticated and unusual eyes, similar to those of extinct trilobites. By sight and smell alone, a male finds a female poking out through a bee or wasp in, tackles the host and mates with the parasite through an orifice on her face. She will eventually give live birth through this same opening, depositing her spiny larvae on a flower to hitch a ride on other bees. When brought back to the hive, they locate developing bee larvae and drill into their bodies with a powerful acid. The bees will obliviously spend their lives with these alien siblings and continue to propogate them. ( the 3 black things on the wasp's abdomen are the female strepsiptera) 
Human botfly ( Dermatobia hominis ) A species of botfly (found only in Central and South America) captures a mosquito and lays its eggs on it ... about 30 of them. The botfly then releases the mosquito. Eventually the mosquito lands on a person. The warmth causes the eggs to hatch, and the larvae (or maggots) fasten to the person's skin. The larvae now eat their way into the skin of the person, and begin feeding on muscle tissue. Tiny hooks hold them in place. A hole is left in the skin so the larvae can breathe. A boil-like lesion develops at the site of infestation. After about 6 weeks the larvae have grown fat while dining on your flesh; they eat their way out and drop to the ground, where they pupate. Adult botflies emerge from the pupas in about 20 days, and the cycle starts all over again. People who have had a botfly larvae infestation in their flesh report that they could feel the maggots moving under their skin.  |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» Screwhead replied on Fri Nov 7, 2008 @ 10:20am |
 Coolness: 685810 | wow. I'm never sleeping again. |
| I'm feeling over 9000 right now.. | |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» Trey replied on Fri Nov 7, 2008 @ 11:34am |
| Coolness: 102985 | no conclusive research, but just in case, we should welcome our new Toxoplasma Overlords.
Toxoplasma gondii 
[ www.news.com.au ] 'turns women into sex kittens' ... "Infected men have lower IQs, achieve a lower level of education and have shorter attention spans. They are also more likely to break rules and take risks, be more independent, more anti-social, suspicious, jealous and morose, and are deemed less attractive to women. "On the other hand, infected women tend to be more outgoing, friendly, more promiscuous, and are considered more attractive to men compared with non-infected controls. ... Dr Boulter said the recent Czech Republic research was not conclusive, but was backed up by animal studies that found infection also changes the behaviour of mice. |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» Nuclear replied on Fri Nov 7, 2008 @ 12:07pm |
 Coolness: 2604205 | thats fucked up... |
| I'm feeling nuclear right now.. | |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» Turtle replied on Fri Nov 7, 2008 @ 12:55pm |
 Coolness: 68525 | Originally Posted By SCREWHEAD
wow. I'm never sleeping again. Same here!! i have the shivers wow but it is facinating but ewwwwwwwwwwwwww |
| I'm feeling sexy right now.. | |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» No_Comply replied on Fri Nov 7, 2008 @ 1:05pm |
 Coolness: 85155 | So, woudlnt that first one be more of a symbiote than a parasite then? |
| I'm feeling gettin more ink soon right now.. | |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» Trey replied on Fri Nov 7, 2008 @ 3:14pm |
| Coolness: 102985 | I dunno, your guess is as good as mine. I believe Miss Fish doesn't appreciate cunnilingus by an isopod. To me, a symbiotic relationship, i think more along the line of bees and flowers.
All the descriptions aren't mine, i just copy and paste from various sites. If anyone has some more parasites or symbiotes, feel free to add. |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» JojoBizarre replied on Fri Nov 7, 2008 @ 3:20pm |
 Coolness: 295195 | IMO it's called a parasite since the host lost something, it's not a win win relationship. |
| I'm feeling sleepy right now.. | |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» Mico replied on Fri Nov 7, 2008 @ 5:01pm |
 Coolness: 150680 | "Infected men have lower IQs, achieve a lower level of education and have shorter attention spans. They are also more likely to break rules and take risks, be more independent, more anti-social, suspicious, jealous and morose, and are deemed less attractive to women. Well this explains everything. |
| I'm feeling cool right now.. | |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» Wizdumb replied on Tue Nov 11, 2008 @ 12:56am |
 Coolness: 122530 | i named my tapeworm billy |
| I'm feeling battery operated right now.. | |
Parasites.
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