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Copiatestes thyrsitae
Copiatestes thyrsitae is fluke that lives on the gills of fish, and while there's nothing out of the ordinary here as far as parasites go, it sometimes also wraps itself around the ankles of seabirds...
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Duplorbis koru
Student guest post time! One of the assessments that I set for students in my ZOOL329 Evolutionary Parasitology class is for them to write about a paper that they have read, in the manner of a blog...
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Echinomermella matsi
Nematodes (roundworms) just can't get enough of being parasites. Parasitism has independently evolved at least fifteen times among nematodes, with each of them realising their best lives inside the...
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Lathraea squamaria
When it comes to parasites, for most people it is a case of "out of sight, out of mind", and that especially applies to holoparasitic plants that spend most of their lives hidden underground or inside...
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Sorochytrium milnesiophthora
Tardigrades (also known as "water bears") have built up a reputation for being pretty much invulnerable (even though Bdelloid rotifers does a lot of tardigrades' tricks and more), but while they can...
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Myxidium anatidum
The bile duct of a bird is probably the last place you'd expect to find a microscopic, parasitic relative of jellyfish, but that is exactly what the study featured in this post is all about. The...
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Pinnotheres pholadis
Pea crabs are a type of tiny crabs that live mostly in bivalve shellfish such as mussels, oysters, and scallops. Scientifically known as pinnotherids, they hang out in the mantle cavity, a muscular bag...
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Galactosomum nagasakiense
Galactosomum nagasakiense is a parasite that lives rent-free in fish's brain and give them "Trematode Whirling Disease" (TWD). There are actually quite a number of different flukespecies that all...
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Limnotrachelobdella okae
Do you like eating fish? Well so do some leeches. Most people only know about the leeches that feed on humans, but there are also numerous other species of leeches out there, and many of them are found...
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Gordius wulingensis
Horsehair worms are a menace to crickets (as well as mantis, millipedes, and centipedes) everywhere. Imagine being a cricket going about your day when you happen upon a protein-rich snack in the form...
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Cymbasoma sp.
Floating amidst the ocean's plankton is a tiny monster, it has no mouth and it must mate, after which it will give birth to a new generation of little monsters that will grow within the bodies of...
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Dolops discoidalis
The electric eel, also known as poraquê, is a formidable animal. Not only is it capable of stunning its prey with an electrifying shock, it can leap out of the water to deliver a powerful jolt to any...
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Cynomorium songaricum
Deserts can be challenging environments to live in, doubly so when you are a parasitic plant that has to latch onto the roots of a specific host plant to live. Cynomorium songaricum is an endangered...
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Myxobolus medusae
Myxozoans are a group of single-celled parasites which had evolved from jellyfish-like ancestors, thus making them a type of single-celled animal. There are about 2400 known species and they mostly...
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Sarcocystis spp.
Student guest post time! One of the assessments that I set for students in my ZOOL329 Evolutionary Parasitology class is for them to write about a paper that they have read, in the manner of a blog...
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Kamegainema cingula
Dracunculidae is a family of worms with a nasty reputation. Most of this is due to Dracunculus medinensis, also known as the Guinea Worm which causes its human hosts such painful suffering that the...
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Sacculina pugettiae
Sacculina pilosella is a parasite of spider crabs (Scyra ferox), and while it is technically a barnacle, you're going to have to abandon all your preconceived notion of what a barnacle, or for that...
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Rocinela sp.
The bonefish is a popular recreational species for catch-and-release fishing. It is targeted by anglers using fly rods or light tackle, and requires some skills to do so as they're easily startled, and...
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Biospeedotrema spp. (et al.)
The deep sea is home to unique communities of organisms, and wherever there is life, there are parasites, and deep sea habitats such as hydrothermal vents with their multitude of species can provide...
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Gibellula agroflorestalis
Imagine an infectious disease that turns you into an immobile white statue - while that sounds like something out of a dystopian science fiction story, this is the fate which awaits any spiders that...
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