Let's read: Parasite of the Day, Part 3

https://dailyparasite.blogspot.com/2020/04/armillifer-armillatus.html
For a multistage parasite, it usually treats its final host well, but the intermediate host unwell. Here, a cheetah ate a snake and got infested by parasites that mistook it for an intermediate host. This resulted in severe infestation.

A male leopard at Kruger National Park, South Africa, which became heavily infected with tongue worm Armillifer armillatus. Researchers found hundreds of A. armillatus larvae throughout the leopard's body cavity, encysted or crawling through the liver, spleen, intestine, and lungs. 

the leopard might have eaten snakes which were infected with female tongue worms that were full of fertilised eggs. After the eggs were liberated from the adult tongue worm's body, they hatched and enter into the next stage of development - the nymphs.

https://dailyparasite.blogspot.com/2018/02/neocyamus-physeteris.html
Whale lice. It lives its whole life on a single sperm whale, and dies with the whale. Whale-whale spreading happens only in the rare whale-whale rubbing social events. It eats whale skin.

It looks very dramatic.


https://dailyparasite.blogspot.com/2018/01/riggia-puyensis.html
Parasite of



Cercariae of Curtuteria australis digging into the foot of a bivalve host.

A little swimmer (cercaria) bursting out of its shell (cyst) at the end of the metacercaria stage.

A redia eating a cercaria

https://dailyparasite.blogspot.com/2013/01/strelkovimermis-spiculatus.html
Strelkovimermis spiculatus emerging from Culex pipiens mosquito larva after completing its development.

https://dailyparasite.blogspot.com/2016/01/artystone-trysibia.html
https://dailyparasite.blogspot.com/2018/01/riggia-puyensis.html
Parasitic isopods.

Artystone trysibia and Riggia puyensis are close relatives to the tongue-eating parasite Cymothoa exigua, but far nastier, as it eats a giant hole inside the fish, and stays there, keeping a small hole to the outside, where it lays eggs. Basically, it's a fistula.

Riggia puyensis inside a fish. In figure A, you can see the opening.

The parasitic isopod from Tena River, Ecuador, a brooding female and its 828 embryos. Figure from Parasitism of the isopod Artystone trysibia in the fish Chaetostoma dermorhynchum from the Tena River (Amazonian region, Ecuador) (2015).

This fish has its surface cut off to reveal the parasite within. The arrow points at the opening that the parasite keeps for laying eggs.

Figure from Pathobiology of Artystone trysibia Schioedte (Isopoda: Cymothoidae), an endoparasitic isopod of South American fresh water fishes (1972). 

Chill video of a chef removing roundworms from a freshly killed yellowtail.

https://dailyparasite.blogspot.com/2016/04/trophomera-marionensis.html
Look at that transparent amphipod, parasitised by H. dubia!

https://dailyparasite.blogspot.com/2017/01/heterorhabditis-bacteriophora.html
A nematode H. bacteriophora carrying its own bioweapon: Photorhabdus bacteria that, when released from the nematode, rapidly multiplies and releases chemicals that turn an insect into a trembling bag of nutritious goo. It takes the worms about 20 days of bathing and drinking in the bug goop to mature and leave. In the mean time, they turn the insect a bright, glowing red, to make it look poisonous and scare away predators. They emit some kind of smell that deters potential predators.



https://dailyparasite.blogspot.com/2019/10/dinobdella-ferox.html
Doctor put a few leech larvae in his nose and let them grow there in peace. It was fun.

nasal congestion, mild stinging sensations and some nosebleeds. But despite the leech's feeding, he found that both his red and white blood cell count held steady during the infection period, and his body was able to compensate for the blood loss.

during the course of their stay (which can range from 24-75 days), they grew to five to ten times their original length, and increased their body mass by up to 380 times. The juvenile leech starts out as a tiny dark mote just 3-4 millimetres long, but by the end of their stay, they were big enough to be easily noticeable when they decide to poke their head out.

Then they started looking for a new host.

When D. ferox starts looking for a new host, it develops an attraction to darkness and water. According to Dr Lai's account, whenever he was in a dark place such as in the middle of watching a movie at a theatre, the leeches came poking out of his nose. But this wasn't the only time when they made their presence noticeable - they also got nosy when he went about some of his daily routines like showering or washing his face. 

https://dailyparasite.blogspot.com/2018/08/copidosoma-floridanum.html
A bag of worms!

Parasitized caterpillar filled with Copidosoma larvae.