Isopods are crustaceans ( like lobster ) . Some isopods are parasitic ( like the one asterisk back at you in the picture up top ) . If you ’re having worry make out what , on the dot , this isopod has parasitized , the response is : a fish . This little monster wrestle its manner in through the gills of its host , plant itself inside the fish ’s mouth , and gorged itself on its victim ’s tongue — which it has now effectively replace . for good .
research worker have known about these tum - reverse parasites for decades , but there ’s still much that we do n’t know about them . Only latterly , for model , did we study that fish with parasites in their mouthstend to have lower profligate countsthan those that are non - parasitized , suggesting that these isopods do more than just eat their hosts ’ tongue — they really behave like “ blood - drinking mouth leeches . ” ( A description I ’m borrowingfrom Carl Zimmer , because it made my hair digest on end when I understand it . )
Now , a newfangled study published in the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society has show that these tongue parasites are rearing among a species of Mediterranean fish known as striped ocean sea bream . In protected , unfished water , the scientists found that 30 percent of the bream were nurse clapper - eating , blood - imbibing rima oris leech . But it catch worse . In a second , intemperately fished population , the percentage of bream with parasitic lip demons jumped from 30 all the way to 47 . “ sportfishing pressure level , ” end the research worker , “ can exacerbate the force of parasitism . ”
You all know what that means , right ? It means we have to give up angle . ( For the record , no , these parasites do not confiscate to human lingua , nor do leech - hold fish cause human disease . strangely , I ’ve found that knowing these things has offered me very little comfort , and will probably not make getting to sleep tonight any easier . )
[ Biological Journal of the Linnean SocietyviaThe Loom ]
Top imagevia ; second mental image by Maria Sala - Bozanovia
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