Parasites

50 of Nature's Most Successful Freeloaders

von Francois Durocher

84 Seiten, Taschenbuch

Kurzbeschreibung des Verlags

Around forty percent of all known species are parasites. The lion and the oak tree are the exceptions.A caterpillar hangs beneath a leaf guarding a cluster of cocoons that are not its own. Wasp larvae ate their way out of its body days earlier; a few stayed behind to keep operating it. When a predator approaches, the caterpillar drives it off. It will defend the cocoons until it starves.Parasites is an illustrated guide to fifty organisms that live at the expense of others, each with an original painting.Inside you will find: - Passengers of the Blood - the malaria parasite that reads its host's body clock, and the trypanosome that carries a thousand disguises- Guests of the Gut - the roundworm laying two hundred thousand eggs a day, and the tapeworm with no digestive system at all- Puppet Masters - the fungus that walks an ant to a leaf and locks its jaws shut, and the wasp that stings a cockroach's brain in a precise location and leads it away by the antenna- Thieves and Impostors - cuckoos, cowbirds, and a flower a metre across with no leaves, stem or roots- Flesh and Bone - the crustacean that replaces a fish's tongue and does the tongue's jobParasitism has evolved independently over a hundred times, and free-living organisms are the minority. This book treats these species as what they are in evolutionary terms - among the most refined and successful organisms on Earth - while being straightforward about the ones that cause serious human disease.Illustrated throughout. Written to inform rather than to disgust.

• ISBN: 9798193542506
• Sprache: Englisch
• Erscheinungsdatum: 18.08.2026
• Größe: 229 x 152 mm
• Verlag: Amazon Digital Services LLC - Kdp