I'll bite your tongue off…

The tongue-eating isopod [Cymothoa exigua] causes degeneration of the tongue [through siphoning and consuming the arterial blood supply] of its host fish, the rose snapper, Lutjanus guttatus, and it then attaches to the remaining tongue stub and floor of the fish’s mouth by hook-like pereopods. In this position the isopod superficially resembles its host’s missing tongue. Brusca & Gilligan (1983) hypothesize that these isopods serve as a mechanical replacement for the fish’s tongue and represent the first known case in animals of functional replacement of a host structure by a parasite. This relationship is so-far known only from the Gulf of California.

Amazing! This parasite structurally replaces the organ it removes from its host. This thing first hooks into the fishes artery supplying the tongue, which seems to be the cause of the tongue’s atrophy (rather than it physically eating the hosts tongue); then basically takes over. I wonder if the host can still enjoy its food?

I think I’m not going to French Kiss (especially not fish) for a while; and remember, never open your mouth while swimming in California!

The Isopoda page on Tree of Life
Practical Fishkeeping News Story

Posted by Ian at September 16, 2005 09:57 AM | TrackBack §