Cymothoa exigua
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Cymothoa exigua |
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| ( Schiødte & Meinert , 1884) |
Cymothoa exigua is a parasitic woodlice that mainlyattacksvarious fish species of the genus Lutjanus from the snapper family. The parasite is found in the eastern Pacific between the Gulf of California and Ecuador .
Way of life
Like the other Cymothoidae, Cymothoa exigua is a proterandric hermaphrodite and begins its life cycle as a free-swimming male. After entering a fish host via the mouth or the gills, it hooks its claws to the base of the fish's tongue and feeds on the blood from the artery there. As the parasite grows, the fish's tongue dies due to anemia (see atrophy ).
From then on, the parasite takes the place and also the function of the tongue, so that the fish can continue to eat food that the parasite feeds on. This is the only case described in which a parasite functionally replaces a part of its host's body.
In the mouth of the fish, Cymothoa exigua grows into a female form with a length of up to 28 mm. Smaller males (up to 15 mm) are often found behind and below the females on the host's gill arches. Mating takes place in the host, the eggs remain in a pocket under the abdomen of the female until the young are released.
Cinematic reception
In the US horror film The Bay - After Fear Comes Panic (2012), an environmental disaster in the Chesapeake Bay is faked, in which Cymothoa exigua changes host and attacks humans after the parasite's original habitat has been destroyed. Here the apocalyptic plague is quickly fatal and is spread through contaminated drinking water.
literature
- RC Brusca & MR Gilligan: Tongue replacement in a marine fish (Lutjanus guttatus) by a parasitic isopod (Crustacea: Isopoda) . In: Copeia . tape 3 (3) , 1983, pp. 813-816 , doi : 10.2307 / 1444352 (English).
- MR Gilligan: Isopod Got Your Tongue? A Bizarre Story Takes a Strange Turn . In: Scenes . tape 3 , 2003, p. 18–19 (English, online [PDF]).
- EH Williams, L. Bunkley-Williams: New records of fish-parasitic isopods (Cymothoidae) in the eastern pacific (Galapagos and Costa Rica) . In: Noticias de Galapagos . tape 62 , 2003, p. 21-23 (English).
Web links
- CBBC: Tongue-eating bug found in fish (English)