"So, naturalists observe, a flea has smaller fleas that on him prey; and these have smaller still to bite ’em; and so proceed ad infinitum."
- Jonathan Swift

April 2, 2010

April 2 - Dolops sp.


Dolops lacks the stalked suckers that Argulus uses for running around on the surfaces of fish. Instead it has pretty hefty hooks that it can use to dig into the skin of the fish to hang on. Just like Argulus, though, Dolops is a really fast swimmer, and if disturbed it can actively swim away with alarming speed. It will survive in the water column without a host just fine, for a while at least. That active swimming also enhances transmission, especially in schooling fish like Piranha, where the next host is just a hop, skip and swim away.

Contributed by Al Dove.

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