Imgur needs more parasites

This is Cymothoa exigua, an isopod that attaches itself to a fishes tongue and feeds off of its blood. Once all the blood is drained, the tongue withers up and falls off. But its not over yet. The isopod takes the place of the fishes tongue and lives there permanently, feeding off of mucus and little bits of blood.

But wait, there's more. The parasite still needs to reproduce. A male will crawl up in this fishes mouth and mate with the female while its still attached to the fishes mouth. The female will give birth attached to the fishes tongue stump, and its brood will disperse to go find more tongues to munch on. Cymothoa exigua is one of the only known cases of a parasite that completely replaces a limb of its host.

There are lots of really freaky an interesting parasites out there, and I can't wait to torture you all with them.