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great-and-small · 1 year

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Do y’all know about Frédéric Thomas? He is a French parasitologist who heard a story about crickets in New Zealand leaping into the water even though they can’t swim, and immediately speculated this suicidal behavior was related to behavior manipulation from an internal parasite. This is before neuro-parasitology was a field at all, and before people really put much stock into parasite’s ability to control animal behavior.

Thomas was certain that studying these crickets would be a huge priority for the scientific world given the implications of a parasite controlling an animal’s actions in such an insidious way. Unfortunately, absolutely nobody would fund Thomas’ expedition to study the crickets, and his grants were all declined. In a wild move that showcases the balls to the wall, near- insanity level passion of a biologist, Thomas declared a hunger strike and wrote a letter to the president of France saying he would not eat until someone took the matter seriously and funded his study on the suicidal crickets. I feel like those of us in research can at least a little bit understand this impulse.

Well the French government actually got Thomas’ message and freaked out a bit at the negative publicity that could arise from a crazy worm scientist starving to death. So they send some government bigwigs to the university to pressure Thomas and his department heads into calling an end to the hunger strike. In the flurry of attention that resulted from this, a Swiss billionaire heard about Thomas’ plight and offered to partially fund the study. The French government was happy to get rid of Thomas and contributed funding as well so that Thomas could head to New Zealand to study his suicidal crickets. He was right about the parasites causing the behavior!

The hunger strike debacle is not even the wildest part of this story. I love biology so much

#neuro parasitology #source: this is your brain on parasites by Kathleen mcauliffe #funny #stories #parasitology #biology #weird #animal behavior

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nightjarring · 2 months

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Something people might be interested in since my friends didn't know: there's this little parasitoid wasp, Copidosoma (Encyrtidae) that has larvae with castes, like ants!

Copidosoma is a polyembryionic wasp, which means many larvae can emerge from a single egg, which in their case is laid in caterpillars. The cool part is that some of these larvae are neither male nor female, but sterile workers that will never become adults, and only exist to defend their siblings by attacking competing larvae chemically AND physically.

In these photos you can see the slender, sexless soldier larvae, and the more typical looking reproductive grub, plus two example images of the soldier attacking larvae of competitor species. Again all this happens inside the eggs and bodies of caterpillars! These things aren't even rare, my boss did his dissertation on this family and described them as "common as dirt". They're used in pest control as a natural enemy. This is a very common species that exists all over the world, almost entirely unnoticed because they're just so small and inconspicuous.

They're not even the only parasitoids that have hit on this either, here's a slide I enjoyed from a PowerPoint I saw at the national ESA meeting. Tragically I have forgotten the authors of this presentation tho..

Update: this paper is about competition between braconids Cotesia glomerata and rubecola and is not the same thing as what's going on in Copidosoma, but does still involve baby on baby violence in the flesh of a living caterpillar.

#entomology #parasitology #mine #hymenoptera #biology #parasitoids

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teloles-and-friends · 16 days

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Over here we are pro-animals

Allllll animals

Yes even those ones

Every parasite and every bloodsucker

Every disease vector and every pest

No organism is useless and none deserve to be driven to extinction

#just tired of hatred for the less lovable animals #animals #bugs #insects #parasites #zoology #parasitology #biology #ecology

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nellasbookplanet · 3 months

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Book recs: the evil fungi did it

We all know of The Last of Us, but that franchise isn't the only example of fungal invasions. We've got zombies and apocalypses, we've got gothic horror, we've got fantasy, we've got romance, we've got space - no genre is safe from having their characters become the home of fungal organisms.

For more details on the books, continue under the readmore. Titles marked with * are my personal favorites. And as always, feel free to share your own recs in the notes!

If you want more book recs, check out my masterpost of rec lists!

The Girl with all the Gifts (The Girl with All the Gifts series) by M.R. Carey

Want another fungal zombie apocalypse? Then I come bearing great news! The Girl with All the Gifts is a post apocalyptic novel following a group of characters fleeing across an infested wasteland, trying to stay alive and hoping to find a cure. One of the characters is Melanie, a young girl who carries the contagion inside of her and hungers for flesh, but like many children of the apocalypse has kept her humanity. Is she and children like her the answer to the cure we are looking for? Or are they the start of something entirely new? This book has also been adapted as a movie!

Cold Storage by David Koepp*

Years ago, a quickly growing fungal organism capable of wiping out humanity came dangerously close to spreading. It was contained and kept in cold storage underneath a military repository. Since then, a larger storage facility has been built on top, the dangers on the lower floor being largely forgotten. That is, until it makes a new attempt at escape. Now, two unsuspecting security guards might be all that stands in the way of complete extermination. This book is both funny and genuine in its characters, and genuinely creepy in its portrayal of body horror.

Salvaged by Madeline Roux

Rosalyn Devar is on the run from her famous family, and has run so far she ended up in space. Now she works as a "space janitor", being sent off to clean up the remains of failed research expeditions. But in trying to cope with her problems, she has fucked up on her job multiple times, and is now close to losing her position. Her last chance is the Brigantine: a research vessel gone silent, all crew presumed dead. But when she arrives to salvage it, Rosalyn discovers the crew isn't as dead as presumed. But are they still human - and will Rosalyn be able to keep her own humanity?

The Annual Migration of Clouds by Premee Mohamed

Novella. Reid is a young woman living in a small community after a climate collapse. Resources are scarce, but Reid's biggest problem is Cad, a mind-altering fungal parasite that lives inside her body. When she is offered a rare chance at attending a far-away university in a secluded dome community, Reid must decide whether to leave or stay to help support her community.

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia*

Noemí Taboada is a glamorous and well-off young woman, but when she receives a frantic letter from her newly-wed cousin, Noemí must leave her glamorous life and travel to find out what is wrong. As she arrives at High Place, a mansion on the Mexican countryside, Noemí is met with mysteries and her cousin's new English family. As she tries to find out the truth behind High Place and its inhabitants, Noemí's only ally is the youngest son of the family. But will she be able to find out what so scared her cousin before it's too late for all of them?

Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon

A young pregnant woman flees a cult that left her body strange and changing in terrifying ways. Hiding from both a world wanting to oppress her and the cult seeking to force her back, she does her best to raise her children while trying to find out the truth of the cult and being pursued by a hunter in a dangerous game of cat and mouse. Bleak and scary, Sorrowland is a book that will creep under your skin with horrors both fantastical and very, very real.

What Moves the Dead (Sworn Soldier duology) by T. Kingfisher

Novella. Alex Easton, retired soldier, travels to visit their childhood friends, siblings Madeline and Roderick Usher, after finding out that Madeline is dying. In the siblings' rural, ancestral home, Madeline walks in her sleep and looks to be fading away, while around it wildlife seems to be possessed by a strange force. With the help of a mycologist and an American doctor, Alex attempts to save Madeline and reveal the truth of her illness.

Wanderers (Wanderers duology) by Chuck Wendig

A strange illness has struck the United States: with no warning, random people with seemingly no connection simply get up and start walking. They do not eat, do not sleep, do not communicate, and they do not stop - and if you try to force them, they literally explode from the inside. Teenaged Shana isn't one of these sleepwalkers, but her little sister is. Unwilling to leave her sister on her own, Shana accompanies the growing flock of walkers, protecting them as one of many "shepherds". And this protection proves necessary, as the sleepwalkers is only the first step toward what might very well be the extinction of the human race. An 800 page epic, Wanderers is a slowburn apocalypse story with a multitude pov characters and plot threads, from fungal pandemics and all-knowing AI to the all too real portrayal of radicalization and bigotry.

The Dawnhounds (The Endsong series) by Sascha Stronach

The Dawnhounds is a book where you just kind of have to let the story and the world wash over you. It skirts the line of scifi and fantasy, with a futuristic world of environmentally friendly mushroom houses and deadly fungi bio weapons next to literally god-given superpowers and near-immortality. It’s really cool and unlike anything else I’ve ever read, but also a bit confusing. Bonus: it’s also sapphic!

Agents of Dreamland (Tinfoil Dossier trilogy) by Caitlín R. Kiernan

Novella. A government agent known only as the Signalman; a cult preying on the young and vulnerable, promising to usher in a new age; a woman who exists outside of time, searching for a way to save humanity. Agents of Dreamland is short, but includes many spooky elements, among them an alien and possibly world-ending fungi. The narrative is non-linear and a bit strange, but also fascinating.

The Genius Plague by David Walton

Soon after landing his dream job at the NSA, things get weird for Neil Johns. His brother Paul, a mycologist, returns from a trip to the Amazon, carrying a nearly lethal fungal infection and a strangely sharpened mind. At work, Neil starts picking up mysterious messages originating out of South America, where cases similar to that of Paul starts occurring. And strangest of all: all the infected seem to be working towards the same goal. Recommended with the caveat that, while the fungal stuff is really cool, The Genius Plague is also happy to idolize American intelligent agencies and demonize environmentalism and anti-imperialism.

Little Mushroom: Judgement Day (Little Mushroom duology) by Shisi

An Zhe isn’t human. He’s a mushroom who absorbed the DNA of a dying man, allowing him to take on human guise and leave the wilderness. Entering one of the last human bases, a place struggling to keep out the mutated and dangerous creatures of the wilds, An Zhe must keep his identity secret as he searches for something which was taken from him. While not my cup of tea (frankly, I need more female characters), Little Mushroom is an undeniably unique m/m romance novel.

Bonus AKA these don't technically involve any fungi but have similar vibes of parasites and nature corrupting the human

Parasite (Parasitology trilogy) by Mira Grant*

In the near future, a great leap in medical science has improved human health by leaps and bounds: a genetically engineered tape worm. Within a few years, almost every human has their own personal parasite implanted. But now, something is happening to the parasites - they want more, whether their hosts want to share or not.

Annihilation (Southern Reach trilogy) by Jeff Vandermeer

For decades, Area X has been completely cut off from humanity. The only ones to enter are small organized expeditions, many of which never return, or return... wrong. We follow the latest expedition, its participants known only as the anthropologist, the psychologist, the surveyor, and our narrator, the biologist. As they enter into Area X to try to find out its secrets, only one thing is for sure: they will never be the same again.

Wilder Girls by Rory Power

Young adult. Over a year ago, the Raxter School for Girls was hit by the Tox, a strange disease that killed off many and left the survivors' bodies slowly changing in terrifying ways. The island the school is on has been in quarantine since then, and the girls dare not leave the school grounds lest they become victims of wild animals changed by the Tox. But as they wait for the promised cure, one of the girls goes missing, and her friends are willing to do anything to find her. Unsettling, spooky, and sapphic, this is a unique read featuring body horror and messy, dangerous girls.

(Second) Bonus AKA I haven't read these yet but they seem really cool

City of Saints and Madmen (Ambergris trilogy) by Jeff Vandermeer

Ambergris, a city created by a mushroom-like people, is now the home of humans, but the original inhabitants are still there, residing beneath the city.

Creatures of Want and Ruin (Diabolist's Library series) by Molly Tanzer

It’s the prohibition era, and while Ellie does fishing during the day, at night she bootlegs moonshine in Long Island. But unbeknownst to Ellie, some of the booze she smuggles has a strange source: distilled from mushrooms by a cult, it causes those who drink it to see terrible things, such as the the destruction of Long Island.

Bloom by Wil McCarthy

The inner solar system has been overtaken by fast-reproducing, fast-mutating technogenic life. Humanity has fled to the outer solar system, hiding beneath the ice of Jupiter's moon, but even here they aren't safe from possible incursion of mycospores, which lead to deadly blooms. Now a group of astronauts venture back to an infected Earth.

#the girl with all the gifts #cold storage #salvaged #the annual migration of clouds #mexican gothic #sorrowland #what moves the dead #wanderers #the dawnhounds #agents of dreamland #the genius plague #little mushroom #parasitology #annihilation #wilder girls #nella talks books

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wikipediapictures · 15 days

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Copepod

“Lernaeolophus sultanus (Copepoda, Pennellidae), a parasite of the deep-sea fish Pristipomoides filamentosus (Lutjanidae), off New Caledonia. Scale, each scale division – 1 mm.” - via Wikimedia Commons

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bogleech · 1 year

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I’ve probably imagined over a hundred designs for Pokemon based on different ectoparasitic arthropods but these are my most recent

Bug/fairy flea that imitates a tiny dog so canine pokemon will accept it

Bug/dark lousefly that would mimic some nurse themed healer pokemon in its region...or maybe it actually is the regional nurse, it just takes payment in blood.

Bug/poison louse with a plague doctor/grim reaper motif; this started as an alternate flea design but these days we’re pretty sure lice spread the black death, not fleas. Still maybe looks too flealike.

Bug/psychic space alien tick, doesn’t have any mouthparts because it metabolizes thoughts alone.

#insects #arachnids #parasites #parasitology #pokemon #fakemon

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futurebird · 2 years

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The Glorious Complexity and Mysteries of Galls, Wasps, Ants, and Aphids

Plant galls are structures of plant tissue that grow in response to the actions of arthropods, bacteria or fungi. These living things hijack the plant and "make" it grow something they find useful.

An "oak apple" type gall created by a parasitic wasp by laying an egg in the leaf as it was growing.

The shapes and structures of galls vary wildly, and often have no obvious correspondence to any of the other parts of the plant. (If you you have a strong trypophobia response be careful googling images of galls some make my crawl, others are etherial)

Some galls seem to be optimized to foil parasitoids who try to lay their eggs inside the pupae of other insects. A wasp would need a very long ovipositor to get to this larva suspended in the center! Somehow the wasp egg induces the tree to grow this complex structure! Amazing!

Although ants are closely related to wasps who play a large roll in the formation of plant galls, ants are *normally* only secondary fauna of galls and not gallmakers.

This is surprising to me since so many plants roll out a welcome mat for ants: extrafloral nectaries as cafeterias, hollow stems& thorns as dormitories. A resident colony of ants can be a plants personal private security detail.

For all the many symbiotic parings of ants and plants there are only a few ants that induce their own galls. As secondary fauna of galls (often created by their creepy cousins, the parasitoid wasps) ants may also act as pest control.

This raises the question: Could plants "allow" gall wasps to make these otherwise energy intensive and potentially harmful structures in hopes of attracting ants as secondary guests? It's a complex web of ecological relationships! Read more here.

Another potential player in this story of galls and wasps and ants are aphids. Aphids are the other main insect that can induce galls. The aphids live in these galls for generations (they don't live long so this is only several months) Of course, ants are famous farmers of aphids.

(Some gallmaking wasps get attacked by hyper parasitoid wasps who only lay their eggs in other gall wasps galls. To prevent this some gallmakers make the galls attractive to ants... who can deter the invaders.)

Glorious Complexity!

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coollittleguys · 5 months

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Platyhelminthes are either the cutest thing you've ever seen or the literal spawn of satan, no in-between, I love them so much.

Dugesia japonica

Schmidtea mediterranea

Clonorchis sinensis

#biology #zoology #parasitology #planarian #platyhelminthes #trematoda #Dugesia Japonica #Schmidtea mediterranea

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monbon-1998 · 11 months

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Attention Dog Owners!

As part of my master's research project on ticks in the UK and Ireland, I would like dog owners to fill out this questionnaire. The questions are mostly multiple choice, with some options to write longer answers. All responses are completely anonymous and the survey should take no longer than 5 minutes to complete.

Your responses are greatly appreciated. Plus, sharing this with any other dog owners you know will help immensely! Thank you for your participation! The questionnaire is now closed. You are all stars :)

#science #parasitology #dogs #uk #ireland #poll #survey #citizen science #parasite #dog

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great-and-small · 4 months

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Me: *plays specific song repeatedly for my unborn child in the womb*

Person: Awww that’s lovely, music is so important to a developing baby 😊

Me: haha yeah definitely that’s why I’m doing it totally not so I can use pre-learned acoustic call-and-response as a form of protection against brood parasitism by cuckoo birds 👀

#warning this will not work if mafia hypothesis is in play #birds #animal behavior #brood parasitism #parasitology #esoteric biology jokes

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is-the-owl-video-cute · 1 year

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What's a guinea worm?

A Guinea worm is a parasitic worm (that has been almost eradicated thanks to extremely beneficial education and providing of free water filters!) endemic to Africa. If you drink water with the Guinea worm’s eggs in it, the worm will hatch in your GI tract and burrow through your tissues until reaching your ankle. Once there it bores a hole through the skin and creates a large sore. The natural instinct for humans is to soak it in water to relieve the pain. Once you do that, the Guinea worm partially emerges and releases its eggs into the water, completing the cycle.

My joke on that post is that the op specified ankle-deep water which would complete the life cycle of any Guinea worms around. Something they would be very excited about being that they are being slowly driven to extinction.

As another fun fact, the Guinea worm is best removed by luring the worm out by putting your foot in a tub of water, grasping it, and slowly winding it around a stick. They are extremely long and thin (around 30 inches), so this can take a few weeks to remove the entire worm (very important to do so as leaving in a worm segment will lead to a horrid infection). Because of this method (which has been around for thousands of years now!), it is believed a certain medical symbol was inspired by the Guinea worm.

Though the Guinea worm is now endemic to five African countries (and rapidly declining) it was once thriving across large swaths of Afro-Eurasia. It is thus theorized that the Greek god Asclepius earned his staff with a snake twined around it from this worm and the most common treatment for it!

We can’t ask the Ancient Greeks who first gave image to this god of course, but I like to think that the Guinea worm will have a legacy to survive after it’s gone. There is a bittersweetness in approaching the complete extinction of this animal that evolved alongside and exclusively for humans.

#Guinea worm #Dracunculus medinensis #the dragon from Medina #monsters inside me #parasitology

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theoddvet · 1 year

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Found a gross lil friend in a ducks intestine and just wanted to share their little head claw, purple oatmeal brain, and massive fat mouth with everyone

#Parasitology #Pathology #Vetblr #Veterinary

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glamstudynotes · 1 month

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