I will never cease to be surprised at the wonders and tricks of nature. No person, even of the most divine origin, can devise such sophisticated ways of survival that can be found among animals and plants.
Bacteria living in poisonous waters ... Luxurious orchid flowers that stink of rotten meat ... A bird "brushing" a crocodile’s teeth ... We met one such "specimen" in the summer when we were relaxing on the California coast. This miracle is called, as we later found out, Cymothoa exigua. Local fishermen told us that there is a "devourer" of language. It can enter the body of a person who eats raw fish, and sometimes affects malicious liars, completely eating their tongue. We laughed at the local horror story and quickly forgot about it. However, after a couple of days I had to remember the story again. We went
fishing. The fish was caught perfectly. Men endlessly pulled more and more individuals from the abyss, we sunbathed, and the children played with the caught fish. Suddenly, a five-year-old boy screamed heartily and almost fell out of the boat. He
shook his hand frantically and roared that he had the strength. Only a few minutes later we realized that he was bitten by a fish. The boy’s mom grabbed a fish pointed to by her son to see what her teeth were. And she screamed no quieter than her toddler starting to calm down. It turned out that instead of the tongue, the fish had a crustacean about 4 cm long in its mouth. He bit those who wanted to look into the fish's mouth.
It turned out that this is Cymothoa exigua - a parasite, which the locals call the "devourer of the tongue." With eight pairs of sharp claws, he clung to the appendix, which remained in the fish from the tongue. Attempts to remove it from the mouth of the fish were unsuccessful: the wood louse sat tight, and only sensitively bit the fingers of daredevils.
Cymothoa exigua as it is
Now we already know for sure that this crustacean creature finds a suitable fish for itself and attaches itself to its tongue, gradually sucking blood from it. When a bloodless language atrophies, Cymothoa exigua takes over its functions. He helps the fish to swallow his prey, and he continues to feed on the mucus secreted by the "owner", or his blood, which happens much less often. The fish continues to live, not even noticing that instead of its tongue, it now has a wood lice. Cymothoa exigua does not kill its carrier. This is the only case in parasitology when an individual first suffers from a parasite, and then survives, thanks to him.
By the way, fairy tales remained fairy tales: Cymothoa exigua does not occur in humans. The maximum that he is capable of is to bite the one who inadvertently puts his finger in the mouth of the affected fish. Although, frankly, after a memorable fishing trip, we almost believed in the stories of local fishermen. We experienced and searched for bitten signs of germination of cancer on the tongue. Only, having finally reached the Internet, were we able to laugh at ourselves and our own fears. Pink snappers, the “favorite” fish of Cymothoa exigua, are found off the coast of California. However, a year ago, an individual with wood lice in a tongue was caught near Great Britain. What is it? Is the Cymothoa exigua range expanding, or did the tandem get here by accident? Scientists do not yet know the answer, and therefore an individual with wood lice in the tongue was placed in the Horniman Museum.