The Tongue-Eating Louse

[Cat's Cradle]

I did a quick search, and this creature was mentioned on the site only once, ten years ago. So I thought I'd link this news story from the US-based NPR website.

This quote from the article might be enough to entice interest:
"This parasite detaches the fish's tongue, attaches itself to the fish's mouth, and becomes its tongue..."

Here's additional proof that the real world is possibly stranger than anything we can imagine. I thought the story was very sad though... I felt bad for the fish. But there must be a science fiction story - or ten - that could be inspired by such a creature.
Warning: the photo attached at the top of the story is darned spooky...

The tongue-eating louse does exactly what its name suggests

It's the stuff of nightmares, or science fiction: a parasite that wants to get inside an animal's mouth, where it attacks — and replaces — the tongue.

www.npr.org

edit - dang, sorry about the link with its mention of cookie consent...I clicked the link and went straight to the article, but maybe I've already given consent at an earlier date. I'm not internet-savvy enough to know how to fix the link...

 

[Biskit]

Yikes.

But there must be a science fiction story - or ten - that could be inspired by such a creature.

It turns out that there already have been, courtesy of Wikipedia...

The Bay (film) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

This Book Is Full of Spiders - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Cat's Cradle]

Cool! I think what surprises me most about this is that it was Oscar winner Barry Levinson (Rain Man) who directed The Bay!
(Also, The Bay has pretty good reviews from critics...I'd never heard of it, but would like to watch it now.)

 

[Fiberglass Cyborg]

IRRC, the "tongue-louse" is quite closely related to woodlice (AKA pillbugs, slaters, sowbugs, etc.) A creature heavily inspired by them features in "The Apocalypse Codex" by Charles Stross. There are also giant marine woodlice a couple of feet long, if anyone fancies doing a very odd remake of "Jaws"?

I swear, if you want new ideas as a horror writer, the best trick is to read up on the natural history of arthropods. Bugs that wear their dehydrated prey as armour; ants zombified by mind-control fungus; wasp larvae that chew their way through living caterpillars; caterpillars that enslave ants; and a particularly nasty parasitic barnacle that attatches to a crab and extends fungoid feeding tendrils through its body.

 

[BAYLOR]

IRRC, the "tongue-louse" is quite closely related to woodlice (AKA pillbugs, slaters, sowbugs, etc.) A creature heavily inspired by them features in "The Apocalypse Codex" by Charles Stross. There are also giant marine woodlice a couple of feet long, if anyone fancies doing a very odd remake of "Jaws"?

I swear, if you want new ideas as a horror writer, the best trick is to read up on the natural history of arthropods. Bugs that wear their dehydrated prey as armour; ants zombified by mind-control fungus; wasp larvae that chew their way through living caterpillars; caterpillars that enslave ants; and a particularly nasty parasitic barnacle that attatches to a crab and extends fungoid feeding tendrils through its body.

They caught on film one of this giant arthropods ambushing and eating a sleeping shark.

 

[tinkerdan]

Fish tonight?

Uhm, no thank you.

 

[mosaix]

The thing featured on QI a few seasons back. Very weird.

 

[BAYLOR]

There was a story in the news a while back about man with a salt water aquarium and one day , he stated to notice that his fish were disappearing and, he couldn't initially figure out why . Then one morning , he found a three foot long Bobbit worm in his tank . Apparently , it had been hiding in coral that he bought for decoration purposes and it was feating on his fish. He gave it an aquarium.

 

[Cat's Cradle]

I had to look up QI... that must be the Quite Interesting game show, in Britain (I'd never heard of it)? If so, it has had Stephen Fry, David Mitchell and many other funny folk appear, so it must be a good show.
I'm slow on the uptake - is QI also a play on letters of IQ?

 

[mosaix]

I had to look up QI... that must be the Quite Interesting game show, in Britain (I'd never heard of it)? If so, it has had Stephen Fry, David Mitchell and many other funny folk appear, so it must be a good show.
I'm slow on the uptake - is QI also a play on letters of IQ?

I suppose 'game show' is accurate as the contestants gain / lose points and are rated first to last. But in reality, it's an excuse for comedians to attempt to answer tricky questions, make fools of themselves and tell a few jokes. There's also a lot of obscure but interesting information imparted.

Don't know about the IQ bit but I doubt it.