Parasites - a bit hard to like

Parasites - a bit hard to like

Posted on: 19/06/2011

Thursday August 4th 2011
It's been a hectic few weeks and the lack of posts is purely down to that - it certainly isn't because nothing's been happening! The main reason for not posting for weeks is that I've just started my next book. It's called 'Metamorphosis' and is about all the different forms of insect transformation. It will be full of photographs and my studio is already home to a variety of pampered six-legged lodgers. Hopefully the text will explain a lot of the lesser known aspects of how evolution came up with total changes of body shape... all very exciting, and my next two years work sorted - excellent!

I know it's not an insect, but the delightful creature in the photo is a Gordian worm. A couple of days ago I rescued a bush cricket from our pool and put it on the ground. Normally they jump off fairly smartly but this one just sat where I put it for ages until eventually moving off slowly in a rather shell-shocked manner.
A little later I spotted this worm at the bottom of the pool so fished it out too. It is half a metre long and one millimetre in diameter. To tell the truth, I didn't know what it was so had to check it out. Well... it came out of the cricket.

Gordian worms are one of the parasites that control or change the host's behaviour and in the case of these loveable ceatures, when the worm reaches maturity, it makes the host drown itself. As soon as the hapless host makes its suicidal leap into water, the worm works its way out to seek a mate. My pool was a bad choice. It is currently in a tank in my studio.