🐛 Hymenolepsis nana (dwarf tapeworm) 🐛
When the inside of your intestines look like the forecourt of a car dealership you know it's time to bring out the anthelminitics
As its name implies (Latin: nanos – dwarf) H.nana is a small species of tapeworm (~40 mm long and 1 mm wide).
If you ingest the H.nana eggs (usually through consumption of water contaminated with infected feces) they will hatch in your duodenum and burrow into the mucosal villi to grow in the lymphatic vessels there. Once close to maturity they will re-emerge in the lumen of your small intestine to form a mature adult tapeworm (shown). The two shown here look just like an air dancer!
Original photo by @microbiologylab_turkey