MetaFilter posts tagged with parasite

Another Reason I'm Glad I'm Not An Ant

XMLicious — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 06:41:11 -0800

Continuing the recent theme of horrifying parasites, here's an infectious little nematode that makes its host swell up into a plump, juicy, red berry so that birds will mistakenly eat its bloated ichorous abdomen and spread the eggs. (via) By the way, in case anyone was wondering, Wikipedia says that nematodes have amoeboid sperm.

Brainwashed by a parasite

puke & cry — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 23:48:01 -0800

Brainwashed by a parasite A look at Cordyceps, a parasitic fungi that infects insects and other arthropods. Don't miss the videos, especially this one. They're the best part.

Poor Devils

parudox — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 09:04:29 -0800

Devil facial tumor disease has ravaged the population of Tasmanian Devils in the last decade. DFTD is a transmissible cancer, i.e. the tumor cells themselves (which differ genetically from their host animal) are the agent responsible. The disease is spread by biting and other contact, and the resulting grotesque tumors interfere with feeding and lead to starvation. Poor immune response may be partially responsible. This is actually not the only such disease: canine transmissible venereal tumor is an analogue that has been known to be contagious since the 19th century. (CTVT, however, gets a proper immune response.) Wikipedia: DFTD, CTVT. The evidence for this method of transmission is quite recent. Here are the studies referenced in the articles: Allograft theory: Transmission of devil facial-tumour disease. (Nature wants your money, though.) Transmission of a fatal clonal tumor by biting occurs due to depleted MHC diversity in a threatened carnivorous marsupial. Clonal Origin and Evolution of a Transmissible Cancer.

Single link to a post a weird insects

Brandon Blatcher — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 17:54:06 -0800

A few weird and interesting insects

Not just for weight loss any more!

TedW — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 06:42:38 -0800

The fascinating world of the tapeworm. Everyone has heard of these parasites, but what do you really know? Not much, if you get your medical information from House. They are a menace to pets as well as humans, but they may have some hidden benefits. They have even been discussed on MeFI before! Is there anything they can't do?

Botflies redux.

unSane — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 21:29:52 -0800

Man pulls botfly larva from his own stomach. Previously, from head. From eye (Snopes, w/pictures). Wikipedia.

The Origins and Evolution of Intelligence

MetaMonkey — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 22:33:17 -0800

The origins and evolution of human intelligence: parasitic insects? viruses? mushrooms? neural darwinism? foraging? machiavellian competition? emergence? or something else?

Alien in a barrel comes ashore

Flitcraft — Sat, 04 Mar 2006 15:31:27 -0800

Pram bugs invade Shetland. It's a strange wee sea beastie called a phronima. which cruises the oceans in its clear jelly barrel made from an unlucky sea squirt. More at the bottom of these Shetland nature notes here

Dracunculiasis

Space Coyote — Mon, 14 Jun 2004 07:43:41 -0800

A worm that builds a home inside the human body, lives there happily until breeding time, then begins a journey to emerge from the skin and find a body of water to lay its eggs in. Although this may very well be a pleasant journey for the worm, for the human, it's an excrutiating one. And so we begin The Tale of the Guinea Worm.

My Thanksgiving dinner post

troutfishing — Thu, 27 Nov 2003 05:56:46 -0800

My very own parasite "I swear it had two beady eyes on it. And it came out two or three inches, looked around and then retracted. I thought it was a dream, a vision of some sort." The yuck factor of our 'little friends' vs. the yuck factor of Flushing PCB's into your nursing infant through breast feeding ("Study finds a cocktail of potentially harmful man-made chemicals in every person tested in UK...") On our day of public gnawing on bird chunks, I ask : which of the above is yuckier? And does anyone out there have a juicy parasite tale to share?