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Antarctophthirus Microchir
''Antarctophthirus microchir'' is a parasite found on pinnipeds (commonly known as sea lions and seals) and is an ectoparasite with the ability to live on the surface of mammals while tolerating submersion in salt water. Life cycle Larval stages: Eggs and first larval stage are mainly found on seal pups, which have less contact with water during the beginning of their lives. It is shown that the parasitic eggs have less resistance to water. Nymph: Legs and spine are developed. Adult: Exterior structures are developed. The haustellum functions as a suction and provides stability of the lice on mammal surface. All stages of ''A. microchir'' were found on aquatic mammals, suggesting the lice completes the entire life cycle within the host. Main structures * Chaetotaxy: Spines, scales, and hairs. Spines typically have grooves. * Spiracles: Serve as a clear membrane for the lice. * Legs: Hinge and middle legs are larger than forelegs. Often used to hold on to hairs of host. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lice
Louse ( : lice) is the common name for any member of the clade Phthiraptera, which contains nearly 5,000 species of wingless parasitic insects. Phthiraptera has variously been recognized as an order, infraorder, or a parvorder, as a result of developments in phylogenetic research. Lice are obligate parasites, living externally on warm-blooded hosts which include every species of bird and mammal, except for monotremes, pangolins, and bats. Lice are vectors of diseases such as typhus. Chewing lice live among the hairs or feathers of their host and feed on skin and debris, while sucking lice pierce the host's skin and feed on blood and other secretions. They usually spend their whole life on a single host, cementing their eggs, called nits, to hairs or feathers. The eggs hatch into nymphs, which moult three times before becoming fully grown, a process that takes about four weeks. Genetic evidence indicates that lice are a highly modified lineage of Psocoptera (now called Ps ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parasites
Parasitism is a Symbiosis, close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the Host (biology), host, causing it some harm, and is Adaptation, adapted structurally to this way of life. The entomologist E. O. Wilson has characterised parasites as "predators that eat prey in units of less than one". Parasites include single-celled protozoans such as the agents of malaria, sleeping sickness, and amoebic dysentery; animals such as hookworms, lice, mosquitoes, and vampire bats; fungi such as Armillaria mellea, honey fungus and the agents of ringworm; and plants such as mistletoe, dodder, and the Orobanchaceae, broomrapes. There are six major parasitic Behavioral ecology#Evolutionarily stable strategy, strategies of exploitation of animal hosts, namely parasitic castration, directly transmitted parasitism (by contact), wikt:trophic, trophicallytransmitted parasitism (by being eaten), Disease vector, vector-transmitted paras ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
