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Special Report: #ASP2012 (Australia) Part I: Better the Devil you (get to) know
This post is the first in a series of special reports that I will be writing based on my recent experience at the Australian Society of Parasitology conference in Launceston, Tasmania (some of you...
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Special Report: #ASP2012 (Australia) Part II: Parasites Gone Wild!
This is Part 2 of my special report on #ASP2012 (Australia) - for part 1 see here.The presentation on DFTD as the "perfect parasite" was followed with a talk by Andrew Thompson who holds a Chair in...
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Special Report: #ASP2012 (Australia) Part III: Sleepy Lizards, Painted Dogs
This post is part 3 of my special report on the #ASP2012 (Australia) meeting at Launceston, see part 1 here and part 2 here.Photo by Caroline WohlfeilThere were a number of interesting talks from the...
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Special Report: #ASP2012 (Australia) Part IV: Swimming with the Parasites
This post is part 4 (and final) of my special report on the #ASP2012 (Australia) meeting at Launceston, Tasmania - see part 1 here, part 2 here, and part 3 here.Photo by Kate HutsonThe last day of the...
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Special Report: #ASP2012 (American) - Part I: What's a Parasite? Zombie Ants,...
The 2012 American Society of Parasitology meetings were held July 13-16 in Richmond, Virginia. There were over 150 papers presented and an additional 50 or so posters and being just one person, I...
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Special Report: #ASP2012 (American) - Part II: 'Omics, Roasts, and Yoda
Sunday morning started off with the Associate Editor's symposium, a fairly new feature of the ASP meetings where 3 of the associate editors of the Journal of Parasitology give talks about their own...
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Mysidobdella californiensis
Photo taken from Figure 3 of the paperMarine leeches are commonly known to feed on various vertebrate hosts - mainly fish and sea turtles. However, today's parasite stands out from the pack by...
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Eimeria echidnae
We have previously featured a number of coccidian parasites on this blog from birds (here and here), alligators, and groundhogs. Today's coccidian parasite lives in a strange ant-eating, egg-laying...
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Metschnikowia bicuspidata
If you are a regular reader of this blog, at some point you would have read about the concept of coevolutionary arms races between hosts and parasites (see this for example). Previously, we have...
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Antricola marginatus
People usually associate bats with the image of vampires and blood feeding, even though most bats are not blood drinkers. However, bats are themselves host to all manners of blood-feeding parasites....
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Bolbosoma balaenae
Image from Figure 1 of the paperToday's parasite is an acanthocephalan (also known as a thorny-headed worm) and its name should be a clue to what it infects - baleen whales. And what do most baleen...
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Gyliauchen volubilis
Fish image taken by Richard Field, found at FishBaseToday's parasite is Gyliauchen volubilis - an intestinal fluke from a family of parasites that exclusively inhabit the gut of herbivorous fishes, in...
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Marshallagia marshalli
Photo by Billy LindblomA host can be infected by many different species of parasites (see this post for example). While in some cases, co-infecting parasites can get along just fine, in others,...
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Hyperia curticephala
C. plocamia photo by Rubén Arturo Guzmán PittmanGenerally speaking, jellyfish are not very appetising as food. They are composed mostly of water and armed with batteries of nasty stinging cells. Both...
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Amblyomma nodosum
The parasite being featured today is Amblyomma nodosum (image on the right - male top, female bottom) - a species of specialised tick that happens to be one of only three species of parasite that were...
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Pseudanisakis sp.
As has been discussed in a number of previousposts, most parasites don't get the whole host to themselves and often have to compete with other parasites for resources. In the case of gastrointestinal...
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Encarsia inaron
On this blog, we have covered many stories of either parasite cleverly evading the host's defences or the host valiantly fighting back against these bodily invaders. But sometimes, both parties lose...
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Metarhizium anisopliae
Today, we are featuring the insect-killing fungus Metarhizium anisopliae. I have previously written about a related species that specialises on orthopterans (grasshoppers, locusts) and all species in...
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Six-legged, fur-covered, sea-faring and conferences - all packed full of...
It looks like we've made it through another year of parasites, filled with posts on new research that was published this year on all manners of parasitic and infectious organisms. Among many other...
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Riouxgolvania kapapkamu
Nematodes are commonly referred to as "roundworms" as that describes their cross-section if you were to cleave one right across its mid-section. Other names for nematodes (particularly parasitic ones)...
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