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

[kaelstra]

For a second I saw that image, and my mind thought it was one of those things where you cut out pieces and glue them together to make something, in this case, I thought "Oh, you glue all those legs on and it makes a squid." My mind mused over this until I realized there were pieces that didn't "fit", and then I realized what the picture was actually of.

Then I lol'd.

[drhoz]

*grins*

[electric_worry]

I just like how the one on top looks like a female reproductive system from space.

[tetrabinary]

Great, thanks for answering my request so well. I'm curious about the behavior modification with regards to the snail seeking higher ground..any thoughts?

Also...ignore the dissent, it's quite clear you have fans to your posts. I just think we're lucky to have a resident parasitologist.

Keep it up.

[drhoz]

plenty of flukes can control the brain of the host, as can other parasites, but in this case I suspect it's mostly that the snail thinks it's still night-time and safe to move about.

[tumorhead]

Thats a freaking gorgeous old illustration, what's it from?

And, holycrap, it DOES look like martian porno. Ack x_x

[drhoz]

The 75th plate from Ernst Haeckel's Kunstformen der Natur (1904), depicting organisms classified as Platodes.

the x-shaped one is Diplozoon, a parasite of goldfish and related species, and is a pair mated for life. The meguro museum has it as their logo.

[gnothi_sauton]

oh god my roommate just found out that her bearded dragon has flat worms D:

[gnothi_sauton]

ok, never mind it's pin worms. but still D: