Parasite of the Month- Answer October 2020
This parasite is Cyamus scammoni, a species of whale lice. Whale lice have hooked appendages used to latch onto the outside of whales where they scavenge for food on the whale’s body, including eating whale skin. Pictured below are Cyamus scammoni and their unique coiled gills!
Posted by Meaghan K.
Meaghan is a fall intern who is majoring in Marine and Freshwater Biology at Colgate University.
Sources
Hurley, D. E., & Mohr, J. L. (1957). On whale-lice (Amphipoda: Cyamidae) from the California gray whale, Eschrichtius glaucus. The Journal of Parasitology, 43(3), 352-357.
Leung, Y. M. (1976). Life Cycle of Cyamus scammoni (Amphipoda: Cyamidae), ectoparasite of gray whale, with a remark on the associated species. Sci Rep Whales Res Inst, 28, 153-160.
We hope you have a seal-ly great week, everyone! Happy #sealsunday!
Hello, do you know what day it is? Well, “eye” can tell you that it’s #FactFriday! Today’s spotlight is on seals and their vision -
Happy Wednesday Everyone! For this #wishlistwednesday post, we are asking for arm guards! A top priority, here at NMLC, is the use of Personal Protective
For this week's #turtletuesday we have some photos of our awesome volunteers helping us with a transport earlier this month! This dedicated team showed up
Our first release at The Farmhouse - Plymouth, MA! Nothing is better than release day!
Sam Eagle enjoying fish for dinner! Happy #sealsunday!