a little guy! a shmoooplefloops even. a wee phlibaboo perhaps. a wungus too if you will
and he plays the tiniest string instrument I have ever seen. I can't even tell what it is simply because of how inconceivably small it is!
it sounds like what you'd get if you poured a big bucket of water in a cave, but it also sounds almost like a mucus net flopping in the wind, if said wind was pink and made of heavy smoke and flowers. it's just incomprehensible!
glorpiness rating: so glorp 🥺
source (researchgate) I cropped the image a bit, just to focus more on the cercaria I guess
creative commons? idk
also here's what the adult looks like (same pic)
kinda looks like an alien mothership to me, especially with the illustration on the research paper above
as a biology major something i find interesting is that the h slur used against intersex people isn’t even biologically correct. tw for me using the full word in this post. note that i am NOT using this to describe humans in any way in this post. i will NEVER use it to describe any organism to which it does not apply, especially humans. i am using it in its proper, biological context to explain its use and actual meaning. basically this mostly describes a lot of worms though they’re not the only animals that exist that are described this way. they’re just the ones with the most examples and the ones i actually know about. any examples i mention in this post will be under the “read more” of this post if i’ve done it correctly so that it doesn’t distract from my point. note that for the non-human organisms i mention i will be referring to two sexes. this is about those animals, not me claiming there’s only two completely distinct sexes in humans. that’s a whole separate conversation that i’m not really qualified to talk about.
the proper use of the word “hermaphrodite/hermaphroditic/hermaphroditism”, the scientific and non-intersexist use of it, is not a human trait. hermaphroditic animals are only described as this on a species/group/etc level, not an individual one, for starters. it is a morphological trait of a category of animals, not individual organisms. to be described as hermaphroditic animals, it has to be part of their life cycle and how the species typically forms. but there’s more
hermaphroditic animals have, as adults, completely developed and fully functional reproductive systems of both sexes. while there are exceptions in which they must find a mate, they can in general both mate with other individuals or self-copulate viably. and the ones which must find a mate are still fully both sexes. more on this later. hermaphroditism is found in many types of worms, like most digenean trematodes.
it’s not “they have characteristics of multiple sexes” but “they are, entirely, both sexes, and it plays a vital role in their function”
and even in an example in which they must find a mate in order to survive and then reproduce, they still function as both sexes. both systems are fully functional and they trade off which one is fertilizing the other but it’s not like one just stops working or existing. there’s a really cool example of this that we recently talked about in parasitology class, Diplozoon paradoxum.
so not only is “hermaphrodite” an intersexist slur, it is also biologically completely inaccurate to describe a human this way.
it’s an extremely fascinating side of biology, and i love learning about it. but the more i learn the more it frustrates me that anyone would describe a person this way. because, historical and cultural context aside, it is factually completely incorrect from a biological standpoint. i don’t know enough about the cultural history of intersex people to be qualified to speak on that topic. i am not a human biologist, nor do i study this facet of history. i study mainly invertebrates, art history, and antiquity/pre-antiquity of the mediterranean region. i don’t want to speak on this side of the topic as i am not versed in it and will get things wrong. i’d love to know more, though!
now for the neat examples i mentioned earlier or just think are cool that i didn’t want to interrupt the post with, plus images:
- digenean trematodes: they have the most complicated life cycle in the animal kingdom and have two or more hosts (parasite that causes one of, if not the highest, rate of parasitic deaths in the world). all of this group of worms (except for schistosomes) are hermaphroditic. i’ll save a lot of the really specific details for both my sanity and yours, especially since i just learned this in a parasitology lecture about an hour ago. but these worms have one genital pore used for both the cirrus (male external reproductive structure) and the metaterm (female reproductive structure accessed through this pore, basically a “vagina” of sorts). they have a crazy long convoluted uterus that at a quick glance is shaped like an intestine (but does not in any capacity act as one). the sperm has to travel all the way through this maze of a uterus to the mehlis’ gland, where the oocytes are fertilized and put in a protective coating. then those eggs travel all the way back up through it and are ejected from the metaterm through the genital pore. i’m not even gonna bother to get into the life cycle itself because dear lord. (image 1 shows a diagram of their bodies. the systems overlap. note that the caecum is their gut and not part of the reproductive systems and that not everything in the image is related to reproduction)
- Diplozoon paradoxum: this is a flatworm that is ectoparasitic to european cyrpinids (a type of freshwater fish). each diapora, or juvenile, cannot develop past that stage until they find another juvenile partner (or else they die). as the pair matures together, their genital ducts fuse permanently, having them in a state of perpetual copula for several years. as they are hermaphroditic, they are cross-fertilizing each other— both reproductive systems in each worm are functioning at once to both fertilize and be fertilized, producing constant offspring. (image 2 shows adults of these worms. the connection point between the two of them is where their genitals have fused)
- a non-parasitic example— temnocephalideans: these are adorable-looking ectocommensal (they live on the outside of their hosts and benefit from it, while having no negative effects on their hosts) flatworms that live on the shells of crustaceans in south and central america, oceania, and india. they feed on the food debris from the crustaceans (which are messy eaters) and have no effect on their hosts. they move sort of like an inchworm along the shell. i love these lil guys. (image 3 shows two of them. they have five little tentacles that they attach lightly to their host with basically little suction cups)
i really like worms and my parasitology class and professor but also the more i learn about what a hermaphrodite actually is the more frustrated i get that people use it to describe humans, especially as a slur. because not only is it completely offensive and uncalled for— it’s also just. not correct. that’s not what it means at all
these young worms love reading murder novels and watching horror movies! unfortunately their succinea host is very squeamish and can't stand such scary things, so it has to endure through everything the worms want to see!!
oh and don't worry, their relationship is very consensual and the worms don't hurt the snail's eyes or affect its actions at all! I think
.........spookiness rating: 55% the things these worms watch made me faint once
photographed by dration (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
there seems to be quite a bit of misinformation online about this parasite
The current research work was conducted during the November to March, 2018-19 (winter/cold season) in response to takeout the internal visceral examination of the host bird T. striata, from different localities of District: Naushahro Feroze, Sindh, Pakistan. This species of social birds mostly found in association of 2-10 in groups. They are dirty in colour, strong yellow bill, less active but beneficial to agro-ecosystem to eat the insect pests but harbour diversity of parasites. A total of (n=10) host birds of Jungle babbler (Family: Leiothrichidae) thoroughly internal examination was done for the presence of the Trematode. A total of (n=48) specimens were recovered and all the hosts were found positive with digenean Trematode parasites belonging to family Eucotylidae: Trematodes were found from kidney of the host birds. The present findings of the internal examination revealed to report Jungle babbler kidney fluke T. bragai is a new host record. The present specimens are accredited first time from present host in Sindh- Pakistan.
We did an article about Nematodes not so long ago that covered the most important intestinal and non-intestinal species regarding companion animals. This article completes the chapter on Endoparasites where we will describe the general characteristics of Trematodes and Cestodes, as well as the characteristics of their most relevant representatives. Intestinal Trematodes Trematodes, or also known…
well, it's official. everything is infected with flukes. noticed fuzzy chunks on some snails, popped one under the microscope, and sure enough, it's got flukes all over it. i obviously didn't treat the water well enough after i discovered the contamination. the worst part is, this is the lfs that wants to buy my baby axolotls. i talked to them on the phone today and told them that the blackworms they sold me were contaminated with flukes, and the guy sounded really receptive when i said that the axolotls now require treatment for internal parasites. he's going to take care of the babies, but i'm going to need him to give me the medicine so i can treat my other axies. so the plan is to isolate the adult axolotls in salt baths, give them panacur in their meals for the next week or so, and treat the water in the tanks. really not happy about this. anyone who has experienced something like this, i'd appreciate any advice you can offer.
