Polypodium hydriforme is one species of cnidarian so different from the other cnidarians it’s just its own thing, like you can split cnidarians into corals, jellyfish and a few other groups and then this group is just the one species here.
And it’s a parasite that grows in salmon eggs!!! These photos are what it looks like in its free living stage where it just keeps multiplying in blobs. when they develop in a salmon egg all their tentacles are pushed in, like if you pushed in all the fingers in a rubber glove, and as they hatch they flip all their tentacles out but this action sucks all the salmon yolk into them and then that’s their food for the rest of their life.
The brown-headed cowbird (Molothrus ater) is a notorious thief. This is merely a young thief which I observed in my yard; it’s still in training, but when it is an adult it will look more like this:
It will search out a nest of an unsupecting bird, perhaps a sparrow or other songbird, and it will sneakily lay an egg when the parents are away. The egg will hatch and the other…
I study the giant clams, bivalves which can grow over three feet long and and are willingly “infected” by a symbiotic algae which they house in an altered stomach cavity. They provide their algae partners with nitrogen, a stable environment and even funnel light in their direction, and the algae happily share the fruit of their labor in the form of sugars. Imagine…
Lampsilis showing off its convincing fish-like lure. Photo: Chris Barnhart, Missouri State.
Clams are traditionally the victims of the aquatic realm. With some exceptions, clams are generally not predatory in nature, preferring to passively filter feed. When they are attacked, their defenses center around their protective shell, or swimming away, or just living in a place that is difficult for…
It is fascinating to see how much parasites manipulate the behavior of their hosts. After the wasp larva has emerged from its body, having fed on its tissues, this seven-spotted ladybird, still alive, remains motionless on the cocoon, offering it protection while the adult parasite develops (May be the baconid wasp, Dinocampus coccinellae, on Coccinella septempunctata)
