"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

August 24, 2010

August 24 - Thyca crystallina

Thyca crystallina is a tiny little limpet mollusc that lives on and sucks the "blood" - the hemolymph - out of blue sea stars (Linckia laevigata). The females of this species can become permanently attached to the exoskeleton of the echinoderms and just live their happily, feeding - oh and mating - with a tiny little male, one-tenth their size, that just lives in their shells and fertilizes her eggs. One might say that they are sort of a "tick of the sea" (oh, this really ought to confuse Jessica Simpson).

The image comes from this site.

No comments:

Post a Comment