#ectoparasites

[clockwaysarts]

I knew I wouldn't get this done, but I was hoping to get at least one round of refinement done here before posting it for the event day but, alas, life and time and travel ate me.

Gotta catch those spiritual parasite fish noodlin' style!

[gildedphoenix]

EctoParasites

So what if our cleaner fish blob ghosts friends were not so friendly and instead started being parasites? Danny finally got accepted to college and now blobs are attacking him? He doesn't have time for this. He DOES, however, have time for the cute guy he keeps seeing at the library.

[fieriframes]

[Ectoparasites.]

[mixotrophics]

picked up a 1953 copy of Fleas, Flukes, and Cuckoos by (Dame) Miriam Rothschild and Theresa Clay today.

I love parasites so of course upon seeing the title, I couldn't say no. The book is focused on parasites affecting birds, of all types, internal, external, brood parasites... invertebrates and vertebrates... I do love to see so many walks of life contained in a single-topic book that isn't just a nature guide.

(You may notice the "R U" contained in the repeating motifs on the cover. This book was a book from the Readers Union, which was basically a subscription service for books)

one of the biggest draws was the plates and figures:

Fig 1: "Diagram of passerine bird illustrating the main groups of parasites with their site of infection."

I love this one, a charming crash-course on both bird anatomy and the diversity of smaller-size parasites the book covers. it covers these in a good level of detail, too.

for example, it gives comparisons of morphological differences one may observe between different modes of parasite life. The plates on the left show the mouthparts of different invertebrates which feed in different ways. The figure on the right shows the attachment organs of different intestinal worms, showing the variety of "anchors" these worms use to avoid being washed out of a host's intestines.

That's quite broad. It goes deeper. For many invertebrate species, the only way to identify one species from another is by observing the shape of its genitals under high magnification... and so they provide:

I'll make an effort to go through and snatch up more of these plates and figures, some of them are beautiful.

it is not a purely anatomical text. There is a good amount of discussion of the ecology of parasites, including multi-host life cycles (which are pretty common to see).

Here we have the life cycle of Cryptocotyle lingua, which seems to be lacking in online presence; the second host of inshore fish does make it a parasite of interest to fish farmers, which is apparent when browsing papers on Cryptocotyle flukes. if you know more about these guys, please add on!!

Of course not all parasites are invertebrates. the book has plenty on vertebrate parasites, such as skuas, and of course the beloved cuckoo mentioned in the title.

I quite like the inclusion of the skua here since kleptoparasites need some time in the spotlight. Cuckoos are amazing, they deserve a post of their own.

With old biology books, though, I tend to have reservations about the actual biology facts provided within. some fields of biology, e.g., palaeontology, are so fast moving that something that was the new trendy hypothesis is old within a few weeks. Usually I get these books for the plates, and for the history, namely, the comparison of what the authors knew and what we now know.

The then-now comparison that struck me immediately was in the first paragraph of the preface:

"An object of the New Naturalist series is ... the encouragement of unusual and original developments of [natural history's] forgotten or neglected facets. One such facet is the study of parasites, a study all too long regarded as curiosity about mere curiousness, or as excursions into backwaters. Some popular books that have been written on the subject have stressed the unusual, the mysterious, often the macabre. Few have taken the subject truly seriously."

...I do feel this thinking persists in a lot of circles. Parasites are always weird gross-out animals, or at least, the invertebrate ones are. even people who are animal-lovers or environmentally-conscious tend to be keen to take to the idea of Kill All Ticks, or whatever (this is not the same as not wanting to have ticks on your body). It sucks that this sentiment is so pervasive, but it did also feel like "The Editors" (as they signed the preface) reached across decades of separation to shake my hand and go hey, yeah, that bothers me too! Let's do something about it (write this book).

Oh, and a lot more than write this book, a whole lot more. While Theresa Clay is a subject of scrutiny for her association with a fraudulent scientist, Dame Miriam Rothschild was from a lineage of accomplished parasitologists, as well as being one herself -- one of the most established flea experts of her contemporaries, as well as a lepidopterist with an interest in mimicry. She was a great scientist, and has many other achievements: working at Bletchley Park in WWII with Alan Turing, pressuring the UK govt to accept more German Jewish refugees, personally housing some of said refugees & providing a hospital for wounded soldiers, advocating for gay rights, and funding research into understanding schizophrenia and helping folks w/ it. amazing!!

here she is with her wildflowers, grown at the very same house she housed refugees and treated the wounded. You can order packets of seeds from these wildflowers, proceeds go to research to fight cancer, septic shock, and covid-19. She was a pioneer of wildflower gardens as well, creating the "Farmer's Nightmare" seed mix. yet another gift from her. All of these amazing things amplify the need to read this book in full and more thoroughly record all interesting tidbits.

I wish I could have met her, and asked her about this book, and if there was anything she would add or update, or if there were any fun stories. she seems like a real gem of a scientist and activist.

[ask-a-vetblr]

I had heard that some brands of flea & tick medications aren't as effective anymore because the parasites had developed resistances to them? Is that true?

gettingvetted here.

Yep, in the US, Frontline products are pretty useless these days, along with almost every over-the-counter flea/tick preventive. The vets from other countries may have input on products in their areas!

Sueanoi here,

Frontline (Fipronil) is still somewhat useful on fleas over here in SE asia. But we’re battling against ticks as well. Fipronil doesn’t really work well on ticks, so we’re less likely to recommend it unless the problem is fleas AND ONLY fleas.

[missnoodliness]

Parasites are everywhere and these are the kind that crawl in your ears! Found these lovely ear mites in the ears of a ~6 week old kitten.

(pardon my hand, it's hard to shoot through one eyepiece on a microscope)

I'm a fully licensed baby vet now, so legally I can be left on my own, but it still scares the shit out of me. Which I have to face my fear next Thursday and Friday...

[er-cryptid]

Ectoparasites and Endoparasites

Ectoparasites -- a parasitic organism that lives on the outer surface of its host -- examples      -- lice      -- ticks      -- mites      -- fleas

Endoparasite -- a parasitic organism that lives inside the body of its host -- examples      -- entamoeba histolytica      -- e. coli

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[gildedphoenix]

EctoParasites - Acceptance

I've started a new fic and posted a little blurb and got a decent response so I'm going to start posting unedited chapters/scenes. Hoping that the sweet sweet dopamine will also motivate me to KEEP writing. So here's some good-mom Maddie Fenton and her sweet obsessed Ghost son.

Gotham U Acceptance Letter

“Mom! I got accepted! I got the scholarship! With a full ride! They loved my submission. remember the competition they ran for the ISS for experiment submissions and I told you all about the way that the Zone acts a lot like the minimal gravity of space and how that really messed with my proprioception when I first started spending long spans of time in the zone and then coming back? So I thought that maybe it might be an issue for the astronauts too! So I submitted that thought, but you know, leaving out the stuff about the Zone because that’s not really common knowledge, I just reframed it as a hypothetical situation, so I proposed some exercises that the astronauts could do on earth, and then - Are you listening mom?” 

Maddie nodded as she continued recalibrating an ecto-gun to be a little more non-lethal. “Yes, dear. I remember you telling me all about it. What did the Wayne Enterprises Scholarship board say about the idea?” She looked up from the blaster briefly to see that Danny was pacing back and forth about 4 inches off the ground. Even though they now knew about his powers, Danny still defaulted to trying to hide his powers. He just….got worse at it. Being able to unmask had made a huge difference in his mental health but the mask couldn’t quite be put all the way back on anymore. 

“Oh yeah. I couldn’t remember if i’d told you. But yeah! They loved it. I actually got a response letter from one of the Canadian astronauts. Chris Hadfield? He's done a lot of the elementary school kids’ experiments and he usually films them and uploads them to ViewTube. His channel is super popular. Him. I got a letter from Hadfield that is was really well thought out experiment and he’s going to personally do it along with a couple others who are scheduled to go up on the next trip, I’m gunna frame that letter. It’s going on my wall forever. He didn’t say when that was.” Danny had continued his pacing around the lab. He had been just phasing through the tables in his excitement but after knocking over phase proof equipment about 7 times, he was now pacing above the tables. “and. um… Oh yeah, the scholarship! They loved it and the scholarship board is going to send over the enrollment paperwork for Gotham U and then all the stipulations and conditions of the scholarship. I’ve gotta keep at least a 3.2 average or I’ll lose my scholarship and-”

Danny’s voice went quieter as he started mumbling to himself and Maddie just shook her head. She’d reel him back in before dinner time but for now he was just happily spiraling, both mentally and physically near the ceiling.