Parasites are creepy in principle.
Consider, for example,
tapeworms. There are six types of
tapeworms that can attach to a human host.
Some are capable of living for decades within the intestines of their
host. And they can grow quite long. A man from India, after complaining about months
of abdominal pain, had an 82-foot-long tapeworm removed from his gut.
But I think I found the
creepiest parasite of all. It’s an
isopod (a type of crustacean) called a tongue-eating louse. The tongue-eating louse lives in the mouth of
a host fish and can grow to over an inch in length. Eventually, it detaches the tongue of the
fish and will use itself as a replacement.
The louse the survives in the
fish’s mouth by feeding on the host’s mucus.
The tongue-eating louse does not kill the fish. This is the only known example of a parasite
replacing an organ of its host.
I have posted a short and more interesting than creepy video about the tongue-eating louse.
A Tongue-Eating Louse in the Mouth of a
Fish
—Mitchell Hegman
Sources: David
Moye (huffpost.com), wbmd.com, healthfacts.blog
Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=327-bwMQI-Y
Photo: australian.museum
No comments:
Post a Comment