Monday, December 24, 2018

Case of the Week 524

Happy Holidays to all of my readers and fellow parasitologists! Here is a little holiday cheer by way of a photo and poem from Blaine:
Dashing through the fur
With modified jumping legs
O’er the hair we go
Spreading Yersinia pestis all the way! Mwa ha ha

Piercing and sucking mouthparts
Make for a painful bite!
Oh what fun it is to spread
This deadly pandemic blight!

Oh, Jingle Bugs Jingle Bugs
Jingle All the Way
Oh what fun it is to spread
Yersinia pestis all the way!

Oh, Jingle Bugs Jingle Bugs
Jingle All the Way
Oh what fun it is to spread
Yersinia pestis all the way!


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8 comments:

  1. AnonymousDecember 24, 2018 at 11:05 AM

    What a beautiful Santa! Though most Xenopsylla cheopis measure only around 1.5mm, they do jump a good thirty centimeters distance, that's about two hundred times their body lengths. If human beings can jump like rat fleas, we can jump two or three football fields.
    Walter Reed Army Institute of Research had a rat and flea identification lab inside the Pasteur Institute in Saigon to study the plague bacillus Yersinia pestis till the late 1960s and Vietnamese Medical Technologist students greatly benefitted from their rotations through WRAIR labs.
    Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone.
    Florida Fan

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  2. Sir GalahadDecember 24, 2018 at 11:48 AM

    Buon Natale e Buon anno 2019

    Carlo Alberto

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  3. Idzi P.December 25, 2018 at 8:09 AM

    Have a wonderful Holiday Season everybody! Enjoy it together with family and friends!
    I wish you all a good health and good parasite hunting in 2019!

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  4. UnknownDecember 25, 2018 at 6:06 PM

    Very clever!
    Merry Christmas Bobby

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  5. Sir GalahadDecember 26, 2018 at 7:52 AM

    Big fleas have little fleas
    Upon their backs to bite' em
    And little fleas have lesser fleas
    And so, ad infinitum

    (Filastrocca di Jonathan Swift)

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  6. Old OneDecember 26, 2018 at 8:28 PM

    After seeing that giant flea, I'll be itching all night.

    Happy new years to everyone

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  7. AliDecember 29, 2018 at 10:43 AM

    Say hello to Santa Nosopsyllus fasciatus!
    But don't expect it to bring you any gifts (besides Yersinia pestis, Rickettsia typhi, and....)
    Happy holidays :)

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  8. Old OneDecember 29, 2018 at 5:24 PM

    While driving eastward though Nebraska several years ago, I was pass by an auto with the Iowa vanity plate that read "Pulex'. The mystery was later solved when I saw a televised report on Dr. Robert Lewis, a noted flea scientist from Iowa.

    Apparently Iowa Prints a number of these " entomology vanities". You can actually summon them on a website. I was delighted to find an old friend listed. Jim Mertins, a diagnostic entomologist for the USDA. Specializing in ticks, he took the title "TICKDOC" Jim is also known for a published work were he cited arachnid references in a number Hollywood movies.

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