Veeloxxy Bites

@the-episiarch.bsky.social

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Parasitologist (they/them) who writes a blog about parasites (http://dailyparasite.blogspot.com/)
and also draws monster girls https://www.deviantart.com/the-episiarch/gallery

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マイマイ

Oh? Looks like it's that time of year again

I was interviewed by Tune FM (the University of New England student radio station) to talk about Sex Crazed Zombie Cicadas and various Funky Fungi #Invertebrate 🧪 You can listen to that segment here: www.tunefm.net/2024/06/28/s...

Sex Crazed Zombie Cicadas | TuneFMwww.tunefm.net Sex Crazed Zombie Cicadas

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蠍の怪　線画 #イラスト #illustration #original #一次創作

"Uh, to be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to fully appreciate Parfait Girls." #DDLC

Dark Gathering is like Pokemon if every single Pokemon is a ghost-type Pokemon and all their fucked up backstories are cranked up to 11. And I want a season two of this Fucked Up Pokemon anime as soon as possible.

This is the perfect accompanying book to read alongside Night of the Living Cat

Picked up the first three volumes of this fluffy catpocalypse manga

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The last #insertaninvert2024 of June - giant ichneumon drilling rig.

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hot footage of an ichneumon wasp's oversized penetration device in use: www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxHc...

#InsertAnInvert2024 These wasps are METAL - literally, their ovipositor contains manganese academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/a... And it is structured so it can withstand high penetration force. www.science.org/doi/full/10.... PSA to wood wasps - don't be caught slacking when this ichneumon comes knocking

Wasp Deposits Parasitic Larvae Deep Inside Tree Trunkwww.youtube.com This giant wasp's method of laying eggs will blow your mind! Please LIKE and SUBSCRIBE if you enjoyed! http://bit.ly/1Adl6ht **More info & videos below**Fore...

The critter for this week's #InsertAnInvert2024 is the giant ichneumon wasp Megarhyssa macrurus en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megarhy... They use their alarming long ovipositor to drill through solid wood in order to reach their host - the larvae of Tremex wood wasps - so their babies can devour it alive

Megarhyssa macrurus - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org

It's real - a plushie of Enypniastes eximia, the deep sea swimming sea cucumber also known as the "headless chicken monster" #Invertebrate

#InsertAnInvert2024 Anelasma is not the only stalked barnacle that has gone down the parasitic road. Rhizolepas is a barnacle that has evolved to parasitise scale worms, and its closest relatives are other barnacles that make a habit of attaching to animals dailyparasite.blogspot.com/2023/09/rhiz...

Rhizolepas sp.dailyparasite.blogspot.com Parasitism has evolved a few different times in barnacles. Most parasitic barnacles belong to a group called the rhizocephalans , which are ...

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#InsertAnInvert2024 Parasites - Mesoparasite Some parasite species live partially embedded into the host's body while leaving parts of their own body exposed. The shark sucker barnacle, for example, has its root-like peduncle burrow into the flesh of various sharks, most notably lanternsharks. 🎨 🐡

#InsertAnInvert2024 While usually associated with lantern sharks, Anelasma has also been reported from the cloaca of a Greenland Shark polarjournal.ch/en/2023/05/0... You know, the shark that has a parasitic copepod (Ommatokoita elongata) that dangles from its eyes

#InsertAnInvert2024 While there are other barnacles that cling to marine animals such as whales or turtles, those are not related to Anelasma. Instead, the closest living relative of these shark-suckers are goose barnacles. Here's my own rendering of Anelasma: www.deviantart.com/the-episiarc...

Anelasma squalicola and Etmopterus spinax by The-Episiarch on DeviantArtwww.deviantart.com

Greenland shark with barnacle in delicate placepolarjournal.ch Researchers discovered a parasitic barnacle on the hindquarters of a Greenland shark that was previously only known from lantern sharks

This is how I'm answering the front door from now on

The critter for this week's #InsertAnInvert2024 is Anelasma squalicola, a barnacle that has abandoned a life of filtering food from water in favour sucking the lifeblood of deep sea sharks. I wrote about how this parasite came to be in this Dispatch for Current Biology www.cell.com/current-biol...

Evolution: How a Barnacle Came to Parasitise a Sharkwww.cell.com A new study on a parasitic barnacle that lives on a deep sea shark found that its closest living relatives are rocky shore barnacles. The findings provide insight into barnacle phylogeny and raise new...

Anelasma squalicola and Etmopterus spinax by The-Episiarch on DeviantArtwww.deviantart.com

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花摘 #不花侵領域

Once again, It's time to check in on what AliExpress has recommended to me

I just finished reading volume 1 and OMFG this is the most hilarious thing that I've read in a long while. If you love cats, you HAVE to read Night of the Living Cat 🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱

Picked up the first three volumes of this fluffy catpocalypse manga

Of course, I can't let #InsertAnInvert2024 on Leucochloridium paradoxum week go by without posting Luci the Leucochloridium Monster Girl www.deviantart.com/the-episiarc...

#insertaninvert2024 While Leucochloridium paradoxum is the most famous species out of its genus, there are actually TEN known species of Leucochloridium out there. Each species has their own specific combo of colours and patterns on their broodsacs. dailyparasite.blogspot.com/2023/01/leuc...

Leucochloridium passeridailyparasite.blogspot.com Leucochloridium paradoxum is one of those parasites which is immediately recognisable on sight. Commonly known as the "zombie snail parasite...

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It's parasite month for #InsertAnInvert2024!! This is my favorite theme so far and I caught up in two days even though I was behind because I was so excited to draw them. The first are fish lice, the second a green-banded broodsac. Follow @the-episiarch.bsky.social for tons of parasite content.

#InsertAnInvert2024 Furthermore, it has been documented that some of broodsacs actually leave the infected snail on their own to sit on exposed foliage. So maybe the snail doesn't need to get its eyes pecked out by a bird for the parasite to be transmitted. dailyparasite.blogspot.com/2016/12/leuc...

#InsertAnInvert2024 From page 54 of "Parasites and the Behavior of Animals" by Janice Moore (2002), quoting Wesenberg-Lund, C (1931) Memoires de 1'Academic Royale des Sciences et des Lettres de Danemark. Section des Sciences., vol 4, pp 90-142

#InsertAnInvert2024 But as for the part of the story about birds pecking at the infected snail's eye stalks because they resemble caterpillars? NO ONE HAS EVER SEEN THIS HAPPEN - it's just a story that so many people take for granted and pass on without giving it a second thought

#InsertAnInvert2024 The oft-told story about Leucochloridium is that it can mind-control snails, but the behavior of infected snails weren't even properly investigated until *2014* zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... As it turns out, Leucochloridium *does* alter snail behaviour.

Do Leucochloridium sporocysts manipulate the behaviour of their snail hosts?zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com The conspicuous broodsacs of Leucochloridium spp. sporocysts, invading tentacles of their intermediate terrestrial snail hosts, are presented as a classic textbook example of the manipulation of host....

Crouching Parrot, Hidden Louse 🦜 I've written a post about Forficuloecus pezopori - a newly described species of louse found on the rare and critically endangered western ground parrot dailyparasite.blogspot.com/2024/06/forf... #Invertebrate🧪

Forficuloecus pezoporidailyparasite.blogspot.com 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 k...