Great Strobing Eyestalks!

[drhoz]

Flatworms have no body cavity other than the gut (and the smallest free-living forms may even lack that!) and lack an anus; the same hole both takes in food and expels waste. Because they don't have any other cavity they have to be flat, or parts of them will suffocate or starve - there's simply nothing to make a circulatory system out of

Comments

[siouxsyn]

I've already gathered that your wife is a very special woman. I'm eating dinner, I will decide later for myself about the Martian pornos.

[drhoz]

well, she put up with us going to the Parasite Museum instead of Disneyland :)

[siouxsyn]

I'd be nervous of you come birthday time : "What's the matter honey, you love pets and this one will never leave you!"

[ebenizer]

Your parasite posts are getting boring. If they were once a week, maybe not. Now though, evertime I see your Aye Aye icon I'm like "oh great, ANOTHER one."

[joethecabdriver]

I like his parasite posts. They are a bit long, but contains good writing. I like his enthusiasm. More pics would be nice, though.

[drhoz]

I'll see what I can do, image-wise, in future.

[drhoz]

fair enough. next time, something non-parasitic.

[tv_on_mute]

I happen to enjoy your posts, even though parasites creep the living fuck out of me.

[drhoz]

nonetheless, I do do a lot of parasite mini-essays. Next time, something geological, perhaps.

[gemfyre]

Sorry if I missed this bit, but did you mention the fact that the fluke also influences the behaviour of the snail? It makes it stay out in the open longer than a snail usually would (retreating before the day heats up and lots of birds appear), thus making it more likely that a bird will see and eat the flukes.

[drhoz]

could that be because the snail is half-blind, and thinks it's still dark?

[cpsings4him]

Parasites creep me out like no other living organism...yet, whenever there's something informative about them around (like this, for instance...or like the documentary, "Eaten Alive" on the Discovery Health channel, for another instance), I find myself FASCINATED and unable to look away though I'm cringing with every fiber of my hopefully parasite free being. Thanks for both creeping me out and fascinating me. :D

[kaelstra]

Everyone has parasites to some extent. Every human has tiny worms living under their eyelashes, for example. We have tons of bacteria living in our intestines (although those aren't parasites, to be fair).

I'm with you though, the thought of tapeworms or something absolutely horrifies me. I saw some pic ages ago of a man basically crapping out a ton of white worms, and I've been terrified of that same fate ever since.

I heard black licorice forces them out of your intestines. I've always wondered about that, LOL.

[drhoz]

follicle mites, actually. Long skinny mites with no arseholes, that have spectacularly efficent mouthparts. most humans have them. A slightly lower percentage have sebaceous mites as well, that live on our foreheads.