Part Three: Untangling the Mystery of Red Gaster Ants By Dr. Kyle Lesack The ability of certain parasites to modify the appearance or...

Part Two: In a Fortuitous Turn of Events By Dr. Kyle Lesack Parasitism of Cephalotes atratus  by Myrmeconema neotropicum In a fortuitous...

Part One: Introduction to Parasitism and Host Manipulation By Dr. Kyle Lesack Nature provides countless examples of ingenious adaptations...

One tongue-eating louse, Cymothoa exigua, was described in our Halloween comic: Free-swimming, juvenile Cymothoa exigua males attach to...

Toxoplasma gondii is a single-celled parasite that infects animals. Cyst forms wait in the muscle tissue of intermediate hosts to be...

The lancet liver fluke, Dicrocoelium dendriticum, has a three-host lifecycle. Eggs in feces hatch and infect a snail. There, the larvae...

Eggs of Leucochloridium paradoxum present in bird droppings hatch and penetrate through the skin of a succineid snail (Succinea spp.,...

Sacculina carcini parsitizes crabs, mostly the green crab Carcinus maenas (1). It is most commonly found in Europe, but has also been...

Diplozoon paradoxum is a flatworm parasite of fish. Eggs hatch and pass through larval stages where they swim to try to find a fish host....

Ophiocordyceps sinensis, or caterpillar fungus, is a parasitic fungus that infects caterpillars of ghost moths. Permissive hosts include...