#tapeworm

[oddarette]

The “Host” lava lamp… 🪱

[ekrixart]

proud tapeworm host

[vio-marks]

i'm completely adverse to turning my fursona into any normal species.

fuck you, she's a tapeworm now.

[sanktpolypenbourg]

Superb tapeworm plushie in the local pharmacy

Not anatomically correct, but great mascot material

[geoffmusk]

The real will wood (and tapeworm) I saw in my dream yesterday

“And if dreams can come true, what does that say about nightmares?”

^^ The tweet is not REAL*

But this is real B)

[pinkishhue22]

[onenicebugperday]

hey, this might be a weird one idk. im very terrified of the idea of tapeworms but i would still like to respect them as insects.

can you give some fun facts about some of the benefits that they provide to an ecosystem?

Well, for starters, tapeworms aren't insects. In fact they're not even in the same phylum as insects and arachnids - they're not arthropods. So they're not really something I know a whole lot about. But I think we can consider them bugs! Especially since I've posted other flatworms before.

As I said in the answer to someone else's question about ticks today, no organism is in an ecosystem to serve a purpose or to benefit it. They're there to survive and reproduce and keep their own species going. But tapeworms are parasites, and parasites do often play an important role in population control for their hosts and nutrient dispersal in an ecosystem.

They're doing what they're doing to survive, and they can't help it that they're harming their host in the process. And they definitely don't know that their life cycle is kinda gross :P