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Dendrogaster nike
Parasitic crustaceans can evolve intosomeprettyfunkyforms and they have been featured multiple times on this blog. These crustaceans don't so much flaunt, but completely toss out all your expectations...
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Chondronema passali
The horned passalus beetle (Odontotaenius disjunctus) is an insect that is commonly found in rotting logs. These beetles do more than just eat wood, they excavate extensive tunnels within those logs...
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Diexanthema hakuhomaruae
The study in this post takes us to one of the darkest corners of the deep sea, over 7000 m below sea level in the Kuril-Kamchatka Trench, located in the northwestern Pacific. Living in this dark and...
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Bothrigaster variolaris
Student guest post time! One of the assessments that I set for students in my ZOOL329 Evolutionary Parasitology class is for them to summarise and write about a paper that they have read in the manner...
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Rhizolepas sp.
Parasitism has evolved a few different times in barnacles. Most parasitic barnacles belong to a group called the rhizocephalans, which are body-snatchers of decapod crustaceanslike crabsand shrimps....
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Atriophallophorus winterbourni
In Lake Alexandrina of New Zealand lives a species of tiny freshwater snail called Potamopyrgus antipodarum. These snails are capable of alternating between sexual and asexual reproduction and can be...
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Stylops ater
Strepisptera is an order of parasitic insects with some very unique characteristics.They are also known as twisted wing parasites, based on the twisted hindwings on the male parasite. They infect many...
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Euglenaformis parasitica
This parasite is invisible to the naked eye, can kill its host in 3 days, and it can be found lurking in the waters of rice fields. What I have just described may sound like a nightmare pathogen from a...
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Prosthogonimus cuneatus
Prosthogonimus is a genus of flukes that live in a special part of a bird's anatomy. It is usually found either in the Bursa of Fabricius, an organ that only birds have, or in the oviduct, and it's...
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Ascarophis globuligera
To land-dwelling humans, deep sea hydrothermal vents would seem like a vision of hell, amidst the crushing darkness you have plumes of superheated water, mixed with noxious sulfides, erupting from...
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Veneriserva pygoclava
There are many ways to become a parasite, and there are parasites with vastly different ancestries that end up joining the same path on the road of parasitism. In some cases, sharing the same path can...
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Anoplocephala gorillae
Tapeworms are found in all kinds of vertebrate animals, and while their life cycles and transmission usually rely upon parasitised prey being eaten by predatory final hosts, some tapeworms have evolved...
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Dracunculus insignis
The Guinea Worm, Dracunculus medinensis, is an agonising parasite for those who have to endure its wrath. The female worm can grow up to 80 cm long and when it comes time for it to release its...
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Forficuloecus pezopori
Parasites are a major part of biodiversity, but they spend most of their time hidden in plain sight. Even with some animals that have been known to science for centuries, their parasite fauna remains...
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Parvatrema spp.
Parasites are known for their complex life cycles, especially among parasitic flatworms such as flukes. And the flukes that are being featured in today's post have life cycles that make them a fluke...
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Selenidium elongatum
A passing glance at the parasite in today's post might lead you to think that it is a worm, perhaps a nematode. But a closer look would reveal that not only is it much, much smaller than most...
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Epifagus virginiana
Epifagus virginiana is a parasitic plant that grows on the roots of American beech trees. Also known as "beechdrops", clumps of their brown stems can be found protruding from the forest floor, reaching...
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Nectonema sp
Sometimes a new scientific discovery comes about while one is doing the most mundane things, and it might not even be a scientist who happens to be doing it. Last year, an unusually high number of...
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Saccularina sp.
The bay scallop (Argopecten irradians) is a highly prized shellfish, but it has suffered through a rough history from overharvesting, habitat loss, and natural enemies. This culminated in a massive...
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Dicyema japonicum
On this blog, we like to revel in the obscure and bizarre, and it doesn't get much more obscure and bizarre than dicyemids - a group of parasites/symbionts which live exclusively in the kidneys of...
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Cymothoa indica (et al.)
Tongue-biters are among the most (in)famous parasites found in fish, but they aren't the only type of isopods that parasitise fish, nor is the mouth the only spot ripe for parasitism - there are many...
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Lysiana exocarpi
Sometimes parasites get their own parasites too, and if you think that "enemy of my enemy is my friend", then you'd think this would be good news for the host. But that depends on the host-parasite...
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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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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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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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