Western media take stock of the most fearsome parasites on Earth

On July 5, the website of the Spanish monthly magazine Fun published an article titled "The Most Terrible Parasite on Earth", written by Sarah Romero. The article takes stock of several terrible parasites on Earth. The full text is excerpted below:

A parasite is a creature that takes nutrients from another organism (the host) and causes damage to the latter. Parasites need a host to grow and reproduce, and this relationship often causes damage to the host organism.

As we know, parasites not only affect humans, they also infect other animals, insects, and plants.

Parasites vary in size, from tiny single-celled organisms to worms visible to the human eye, and here's a look at some of the scary parasites.

A parasite that controls "thoughts"

The flat parasite double disc fluke suddenly exploded on social networks a few months ago because of the appearance of "zombie snails". The story behind the zombie snail is chilling, with the double-disced sucker using snails and other gastropods as intermediate hosts in order to transition to the last host bird. The parasite develops inside the snail, filling the snail's tentacles with larval sacs and controlling the snail, so that it becomes a "zombie", at this time the snail's antennae look like small caterpillars from the outside, attracting birds to prey on snails, and double-disc flukes thus open the next stage of parasitic life cycle in the bird's body.

A wasp that manipulates spiders

Although parasites harm their hosts for selfish survival, not all parasites kill them, but this is not the case with parasitic wasps. The parasitic bees that inspired the monsters in the movie Alien lay their eggs inside their victims, and their offspring devour them as they leave their hosts. There are also many parasitic wasps that can control the host's thoughts. The larvae of the Hymenoepimecis argyraphaga wasp, for example, allow the Plesiometa argyra spider to weave unusual webs that are particularly suitable for supporting its cocoons.

Parasites that penetrate the skin

There is a parasite that infects humans. Hookworms are small nematodes less than 1.5 cm long that cause a disease commonly referred to as hookworm disease. Although their infections are rarely fatal, they tend to produce symptoms of abdominal pain, diarrhea, weight loss, tiredness, loss of appetite, anemia, and skin infections. But if children are infected with hookworms, they can be particularly dangerous, as parasitic infections can cause problems with physical and cognitive development. How is it infected? One of the most common ways to contract the disease is to walk barefoot on the ground, as hookworms "attach to the skin" and burrow into the body and into the small intestine.

Paralyzed tick in Australia

The holocal tick is a tick that paralyzes the host by injecting a neurotoxin into the host. The tick attaches itself to its new host with its teeth, digging its large, sharp mouthparts into the skin before injecting anticoagulant saliva to prevent blood from clotting. In most cases, tick bites only produce localized swelling and some itching. However, in rare cases, it can trigger paralysis and severe allergic reactions. If the tick is not removed, the patient may die of respiratory failure.

Eat tongue parasites

It is the only parasite known to feed not only on the tongue of its host, but also completely in the position of the tongue, that is, the mouth of a fish. Tongue-eating parasites feed on the blood of the tongue until the tongue dries up. The parasite then attaches to the remaining dry tongue of the fish, occupying the position of the previous tongue, feeding on the blood and mucus in the mouth of the fish. (Compilation/Lu Wang)

Source: Reference News Network