Warble Garble

largest parasites. This episode is not for lunchtime. Discover this and more as we answered the age old question why did Sore and request we do an episode on warble flies. Joining me today is friend of the pod writer for American Dad, The Sore, and part of Quick Question with Soren and Daniel Sore and Booie. Welcome, Hello everybody. Oh it's so good to be back. Yeah. Last time we talked about beaver testes, and this time we're talking about

horrible parasites. Yeah, some really gross ones. Um. I got really excited about warble flies because I briefly remember a biology teacher being like, oh, yeah, and there are these flies that live up in Alaska that will chase cariboo off of cliffs. And I was like, okay, and they forgot to ever check up on that. So I was like, I'm gonna go find this thing. Yeah, I mean they are kind of the biggest nightmare for ungula. I was unaware that they actually chase caribou off of cliffs. Is

that true? So cariboos are aware of them, cariboo do not like them? Yeah, and and so I don't know. I mean, this is what my I had a teachers. This is all of my information came from in high school. Um, so I take it with a grain of salt. But yeah, there's a teacher who said that the caribou are so upset and don't like them that they will run away from them. And as they're trying to get away from them, the warble flies will give chase and occasionally cariboo will

careen off of cliffs trying to get away from them. Well, teachers say a lot of things. I had a teacher who said that the polls were going to reverse in our lifetimes and we'd all die. Um yeah, so, but yeah, warble flies are pretty scary, and I wouldn't blame a caribou for jumping off a cliff. Uh. And with that, I will say a content warning for this whole episode

it's about parasites and they're super gross. So like, if you're eating a big, like wet plate of spaghetti, I wouldn't you know, save the spaghetti with like meat, sauce and pesto for later. I'm glad that you gave that content warning because now I feel very comfortable in uh diving into some other viscera and telling you that I got COVID. Oh I'm sorry about that. How are you

feeling terrible? Um? Yeah, the last so I started having symptoms on well it's not gonn married any but I'm like like four days ago and it's just been I've just been wiped out. Yeah, I'm real sorry about that. All right, If you're feeling okay enough to podcast, yeah, actually today I feel like I turned a corner, so okay, all right, Well I don't but I don't want to be responsible for your downfall. So if you're not feeling good,

we can stop the podcast. We have video in between us, so if you see me turning blue, right, we'll wrap it up like we'll come up with a good ending. Yeah yeah, yeah, I'll be like, wow, are you auditioning for the Blue Man Group? Anyways, I'm calling the doctor, but I'm sorry you're you're feeling bad. Um Hopefully discussing uh indo parasites will cherry up a little bit. Honestly, this is the this is the thing I want to talk about most, So this is great. So yeah, warble flies,

apparently Soren is their number one fan. There a genus of large flies found all over in the northern hemisphere, and the adults look pretty harmless. They look like cute little bumblebees. They're fuzzy with black and yellow stripes, kind of finoculous looking. Meanwhile, the larva look uh like, well just larva, but they are hell demons that do unspeakable

things that we're going to talk about right now. So they love to eat the flesh of ungulates, so they can infect cows, horses, sheep, goats, deer, dogs, cats, squirrels, rabbits, and sometimes even humans. Uh So, these cute, innocent looking, fluffy bee like flies will lay eggs on its victim and that's just where the trouble starts. So their whole adult life just basically revolves around having sex and laying

eggs and then dying. They don't even have a working mouth, so they can't eat and then they die after five days up top warble fly a life. Yeah, it's just it's really about the hustle. That's great, good for them. Yeah, I you know, there was a time in my life where I was like, I wish that food just came in pilform, you know, and you didn't have to worry

about it. But these days I'm just glad I'm not a warble fly because it's not I don't know, man, Like, it's kind of strange to like go through all this effort to become an adult and then it's like, after five days pooping out some eggs, they're like, well, I'm done. I guess it could be kind of tough too, Like imagine the pressure on you to have sex. You're you gotta get it done, like it's important and you've only

got a small window. There should be an American Pie about warble flies, sort of team comedy where it's like, no, no, this is also life or death for you. Yeah, it's not. You don't really have time to set the mood or mess around with pastries. You do kind of have to like get it done efficiently and quickly. I do think American Pie would have been better if it ended with everyone falling down dead after laying their eggs after finding some megafunt to stick their eggs inside. What's what's the

main character's name? I don't even remember. I'm going to say James, James. That that's a good solid American name. Yeah. I remember when he laid his eggs in that pie. That was hilarious. Levy. What's his name something? Levy. He raised his big thick eyebrows. He's like, son, you can't lay eggs in that pie. Your mom baked that pie. That's right. I could believe forgot the Eugene Levy was

in that movie. Yeah, that's his name, not James. Yeah, anyways, um, yeah, So the eggs that these warble flies lay are usually deposited on the four legs of cows or whatever animals that they're infesting, but you know, given the opportunity, they'll lay them anywhere, anywhere on a living body. So they hatch in a few days, and then the larva burrowed down into the skin and traveled deep into the connective tissues,

and that's where the fun begins. By fun, I mean Indo paris satism, which you know, I think universally beloved kind of thing. So they will secretly grow inside of their host for months before returning back to the surface of the skin and this form this, this forms this raised large bump or warble. I've never heard of a bump being called a warble, and so it's like it's kind of like, oh, yeah, this is why they're called warble flies because the bud they make is called a warble.

It's like you just made that up, like it sounds. Have you tried the warble? Yeah? Yeah, like or like the it's like a carnival ride or something, the Great Warble experience. It would be kind of fun, I guess, to be in a little like a coaster where you're in like the warble fly and you go through tunnels through a giant cow. H Anyways, they metamorphosized into adults and then burrow out of the skin, leaving a big gaping hole in its wake, which you know, that's fun.

And when you see like a bump like a warble, you might think like, oh, well, I better smash that before it hatches. Well, no, don't do that, because if you do that and prevent them from hatching, this will likely lead to infection and in some cases anaphylaxis, and that's bad Jesus Christ. Ah, it's so gross. But if you so you get one of these things, you have to keep it alive. Basically you're its mother at that point.

But it hatch or and then like, your choices are either bad bad infection by letting it die, or a big scar that you'll never recover from. Yeah, I mean pregnancy, it's true. Or I think you do go to the doctor and they might be able to remove it or do something for you. But if you're if you're a cow, uh, Like, if you're a squirrel or a cow and you don't have a doctor. I don't think squirrels have doctors, then yeah,

there's no there's nothing you can do about it. You just gotta wait for it to come out of you. Have you talked about bot flies on here before? I think I have a long time ago, and my guest was really sad about it there. I mean they just feunds, like a cousin or like a sister. Of these are I mean these are actually a type of butt fly. So it's the same um, you know, sort of I

think genus of of animals. Yeah, obviously called a botfly because the buffly lays an egg under the skin and it creates a little oval shape that's called, of course, called a bot we'll call it. S just made that up, but yeah, it's the same, the same sort of logic of the war will fly. But I've heard that with a botfly you can stays a little hole in the surface of the skin. It leaves a little vent basically

so that it can the larva can breathe. And I don't know if this is true of the warble, but like if you tried to drown it, like if you tried to get into the water, it just starts wriggling. It was really really painful. Uh, and so you have you have no choice, but it's like surface because you're like, no, I can't. Or if you get one in an area that doesn't have a lot of meat, like on your foot,

on your head or something like that. I've heard that you can leave a steak next to it for like a day, and it will it senses that there's a more fleshy area that it's moved to, and it will wriggle out and into the steak. Oh God, that sounds disgusting. I'm not sure if it's true. Uh, you know what, I'm realizing now it was the same biology teacher. I had a really great biology teacher. Maybe a full on liar, but I really enjoyed all of that. I am googling it so that you don't have to, because I can

promise you don't want to google this. This is interesting. In nursing the peer reviewed journal of Clinical Excellence, Wow Clinical Excellence, they do say that a suffocation method for treating the parasitic human bot fly is placing any type of meat on top of the legion for forty eight hours and hopes that the larva will protrude into the meat in a way from the human. So, yeah, your teacher I maybe is correct there. I would again, if

you've got a abot fly, go to a doctor. They probably have medical meat, you know, like like some kind of fancy medical grade meat to slap on you. You know how they're like lost meat, but in the medical field, they're going to charge you three thousand dollars. I know how it goes. I mean, there are medical maggots, so why wouldn't there be medical meat doctors Right to me at creature feature Pod at gmail dot com, let me

know is their medical meat question mark. These type though, the warble flies, they target cows, and because this typically happens in cattle, it's a big pest for meat farmers. I mean actually, so there are different types of warble flies that specialize for different ungulates, like you mentioned caribou ones. They're also warm flies that attack cows. And the ones that attack cows are a huge menace and they will burrow through the cows flesh and leave these tunnels, which

is horrible. Um, and the cow's immune system has to respond, like when you're injured, your your body puts forth a response to try to like, you know, fill in the hole. So the immune system fills the whole with white blood cells and other immune cells, which ends up looking kind of like a green goo. And this is called butcher's jelly. And it's yeah, I know, right, Like it's the worst name you could name anything, butcher's jelly. And then it is actually a horrible thing as well. It's this pew

worthy name. Given what it is, it renders meat unusable for consumption. So luckily they don't like try to feed us butcher's jelly, but it is, yeah, it's bad and gross. News flash. The meat industry has a lot of disgusting things in it. Oh God, Butcher's jellies the best band

name I could think of. It has pretty good And I mean, I feel like this podcast could also be called just like band name generation podcast, because I've got things like proboscis and uh, you know, yeah, just some like or I was gonna say orthodontics, but I realized that's just a word that does is not really related

to my podcast, but it popped into my head. So so you think that then a cow that is infected with warble flies would get it off the meat hook and a reprieve from slaughter, But that's not really how the meat industry works. Typically, these holes are only discovered after slaughter, and they will try to use what they can of the cow carcass and just kind of you know, I guess cut around the butcher's jelly. I mean, it will say on their legs, and we're not really eating

the legs. But they can get elsewhere. Yeah, they can like burrow from the legs, these tiny larva and I think even get like into the neck tissue. It's disgusting, does it? Can it get all the weight? They can get deep enough that they would suffocate them the larva. I don't. I don't think so. I think for some reason, I think because these larva when they are young, um, they are able to do gas exchange without like an open air event. And then when they become when they

start to metamorphosis into adults, they return to the surface. Uh. So they probably migrate back to the surface of the flesh before they basically need that breathing. Oh no, I mean like you've canna get close if it's in the throat tissue. Oh, you're asking the cow can breathe? See, And I care about the parasite and worry about them, and you're more worried about the dumb cow. That's the way it should be. Everybody should be worried about one animal,

and then that's their animal. I pick the most disgusting parasite to worry about because who else is gonna do it. I don't know of any cows person only who have been suffocated by warble flies. But if you're a cow and you or your friend has been suffocated by warble flies, you may be entitled to a settlement, so right to me. Uh. And we are doing a class action lawsuit against the warble flies. So, speaking of class action lawsuits, can warble

flies infect humans? That's what everyone is thinking right now, I would assume, and I've got kind of bad news. Technically, yes, they can and sometimes do, so they don't target humans specifically. Uh, there is like the human bot fly that you have to worry about more in cases of the warble fly. Uh, you know, infesting a human are quite rare, but when

they knew happen, they're horrible. You were talking about reindeer warble flies or caribou warrible flies, and they will sometimes infect people in Norway and children are the most likely to be infective. And why are children the most likely to be infected? I don't know. My theory is that children are gross and they'll roll around and stuff they

should not be rolling around in. It could be that because like the eggs take a few days to hatch, and so if like a kid doesn't want to take a bath for a couple of days, then like, you know, it gives them time to hatch. Um. You know. So usually what happens is this just causes some swelling and infection. In extreme cases, if left untreated, it can cause blindness. If the larva attacks the eye tissue. So it's you know, but these are exceedingly rare cases. Uh so typically you

don't have to worry about it. But if you want to worry about things, let me give you the most rare cases ever that are just the grossest most. I just okay, So in really rare cases of humans being attacked by warble flies, they can suffer cerebral my assis. So what does this mean? Well, my assis is when a larva lives and feeds inside your tissue, and cerebral means inside the brain. So we put these words together and what do we get? Brain worms? Hooray, it's my god,

get them in your brain. You can, statistically speaking, you will not like, uh, it's extremely, extremely rare, but it does happen. So I'm so glad I brought this here because I this is like a thing I've been curious about for a long time, and I was like, I could look it up. That sounds gross. I think I'd rather just have somebody give me the hits. Maybe that's right, that's right. I google the most disgusting images so you don't have to. So if you're wondering whether it's ad

to have larva in your brain. It is um It can cause seizures and hemorrhagic stroke, which are both bad things for you. And if this sounds potentially deadly, it is. Uh. So you can die from having larva in your brain. Uh, there are from you know, the stroke. The bleeding is bad. It's bad. Your brain is am I or am I just reacting? So? Uh, there are only about sixteen total cases of this ever recorded. So you know, it's not going to happen to you. All you health anxiety sufferers

out there, it will not happen to you. It is not going to happen to you. It's going to happen. Uh. And if it does, it can be treated with surgery. So you know, don't worry about it. It's not a big deal. You're doing. There's no getting better. I'm so sorry. It's your number seventeen. There's already been sixteen. This has already been sixteen. Yeah, if you are number seventeen of people who have had larva in your brain, right to me, you may be entitled to a settlement from a class

action lawsuit. I didn't realize how much heavy lifting this podcast was doing. And within the world there's so many people that you're now reaching out to to have right to you. Yeah, I mean I think that it's probably just very targeted. Like the demographic targeting is really good. So of the people in the world who have gotten brain parasites, they are probably listening to this podcast. And I don't know if that's an insult to me or to you the audience, but I'm not going to take

it as once, so neither should you. So we're going to take a quick brain Yeah, I'm the one. I'm the one with the parasites and me. I mean this has been no secret. I opened up the podcast fully admitting it, so none of you should be shocked. I was gonna say, we're gonna take a quick break. Um, while on the other side of the warble, we'll be talking about all right, so we're back, Um, how you feeling sore and feeling good? Actually, yeah, this has been really fun. Eat a big plate of like Joki with

like bright green pesto. Yoki is perfect. Yes, absolutely, that is very on theme. Yeah, you know, I do love Nyoki, but the ones that's got the little like segments to it sometimes just mentally I can't do it because it looks like a larva looks it does look a little bit like the larva. Now, some yokie don't have those little segments, and I like those better because I can justify it more. But the ones that have the little segments, I'm like, why are you making mine yoki look more

like a larva? And I like to have a little traction when it goes in my mouth. I don't want to just sliding down my throat by accident. Okay, well you know that I did not consider that the throat physics of the room to joki, But now I am thank you for that. So we are actually going to move on from warble flies. But don't worry, we're still talking about just gnarly parasites. So, and where do you

think you would find the world's largest internal parasite? Okay, I've seen videos of people taking a stick and wrapping a flat worm around the stick out of their skin and it just keeps going and going and going. So I would assume that it's a platy helmets. Assume it's like some flat worm and an intestinal flatworm, and I'm going to say it's the Amazon. That's an interesting guess. I mean, think about it in terms of animals, though, where do you think you'd find the world's largest intestinal

parasite o megafauna Africa? You're not even thinking big enough, man, there's oh goddamn it, it's always the ocean. It's in whales. It's like it's the world's largest parasites are in the world's largest animals, and it I mean, it's just cartoon. It's to me, it's like really funny logic where it's just like, Okay, you have a huge animal, so the parasites are gigantic because they can be so. Sperm whales are the largest toothed whale. They're not the largest whale.

They are beaten in size by other whales, such as the blue whale, which is a bayleen whale, not a toothed whale. Sperm whales can grow up to be over fifty feet or sixty meters in length, although extra big ones can be nearly seventy ft long or over twenty meters, so you know they're they're big boys. Large adult sperm whales have no natural predators, and some animals, however, have still learned how to feed off of the body of

a sperm whale without them even noticing parasites. So round worms are parasitic nematodes that infect a variety of animals, humans included. But the species that parasitizes, sperm whales, can grow to be ridiculously huge. They're just under an inch thick, so two point five centimeters, but they can grow to be almost thirty feet long or eight point five met How many people is that? That's like, all right, so

that's five of me. That's five sores of parasites. Yeah, so if you were trying to play, like, you know, what is it pool chicken with a parasite from a toothed whale, you'd have to have five sorens stacked on top of their shoulders. Sort of trying to what even

is the goal of pool chicken? I've never gotten it. Okay, I'm pretty sure that you're supposed to knock the other person off of the back of the Yeah, so you know you're on with two people on each other's backs, and then you're supposed to knock the other person off. It's like, um, yeah, but you're doing using just your hands. That sucks. I think that instead the goal should be who can get inside the sperm whale? The fastest. Yeah.

So for comparison, the largest round worms that can infect humans grow to be about point one inches or four millimeters thick and eleven inches or thirty centimeters long. So you know, it's not a big deal. A big foot's all. Yeah, that's fine. I mean compared to what is inside the sperm whale, does it really seem that bad now? No? But also because when you're a sperm whale, like you know, you can't go to a doctor when you've got something

like that inside you. You're just like, well, yeah, because you can't fit in the door. Yeah, I mean this thing and those things must weigh at least ten pounds, right, yea, give or take a few pounds. Feel that? Oh god, that's so gross. Um. So yeah, it's name is plus cent aema gigantezma. And by that name, can you guess what part of the whale it likes to parasitize the most? Say it again, plus cent aema gigantisma. Yeah. Uh? Is it specifically in sex organs? Yes, so it likes to

be in the uterus in placenta. What a little freak. It can also target the reproductive tract and memory glance. So this is a very misogynistic parasite that typically targets female sperm whales. Don't worry, though, we will get to a miss Andre's parasite leader in the show, just for equity's sake. But this is just the largest round worm. I didn't say it's the largest parasite in the world, did I No, So the largest parasite in the world is the tape worm tetra gon no porous kind of god,

damn it. Hang on a second, I gotta catch my breath. Okay, tetra gono porous calipocephalis found in sperm whales. Again, poor sperm whales, And this thing can grow to be over nine ft or over twenties seven meters long, although they can grow to be almost a hundred and thirty feet or forty long. How many sorens is that? H wait? How many feet? The biggest ones can be a hundred and thirty feet Uh huh um, I don't know. It's past ten in my multiplication table. It's a it's a

very very long stack of sorens. So it is found in the gut of the sperm whale, usually in the intestines. And if you thought this couldn't get grosser. Um, you're wrong. So tape worms are segmented, just like Yoki. I'm so sorry for making that connection for everyone. I'm like, one of the worst things that I would do when I was a kid is I would make connections between food and gross stuff, um, and then not be able to eat that food. And now I'm just spreading my misery

to others. Anyways. Uh. Yes, So tape worms are segmented, and each set mint has several sets of reproductive organs up to fourteen yea, which can produce eggs, making them disgustingly prolific reproducers. So yeah, if you ever was were curious, like how does tapeworm sex happen inside of sperm whale?

Here it is, here it goes. So the segments on a single individual tapeworm can reproduce with each other, which is like even further than like what House of Dragons Game of Thrones goes, you know, with all the weird relationships. Like we're talking like a tape worm and it's got these segments and each segment has like fourteen reproductive organs

and then they're all reproducing with each other. Um. They also so they shed their in segments, which will end up in the whale's poop, which can then be pooped out and ingested by another whale, which is way almost come on, stop being so nasty. Well that's an easy

solution right there. Just spur with each other. It's a little bit hard though, when like you live in the water and then you poop and then it's just like there and the other whales trying to eat like a floating plate of spaghetti, and then some poop drift spy and you just kind of accidentally you're like, whoops, anyways, spaghetti. Did you just use that as the equivalent of like a a giant squid? I mean, that's essentially essentially Yeah, that's a what what else is a giant squid? But

a floating plate of spaghetti. So this can result and they're being more than one tape worm, like individual tape worm being inside the same whale. And if that happens, hey, they spice things up and mate with the other tapeworm rather than mating with its own segments. So fun. I mean, it helps diversify the gene pool. That's pretty cool. So they should fight to the death instead, that would be so much better. Nature. Yeah, no, it's actually just free

love inside the whale. And further bad news is that the tetragona porous Caliptocephalus has over thousand segments, all producing eggs. Again, remember each segment can have like fourteen gonads, and this means that it probably produces nearly a million eggs a day and billions in its lifetime, which is, you know, a good amount. I would say, I don't think so wow,

that's so gross. Yeah, I do want the record to show on the show that when you asked me what the largest one was, I did say some platty helmon thees, Yeah, which is flower right, isn't that what what we're dealing with? Isn't that tapeworm? I believe that's the name. Look, listen, I don't memorize all. Let's look at up his names because I'm not a nerd. Well. I was learning platty almans. You were off at the parties. I was chucking tape

worms for fun. Me let me see. Yeah, tapeworm also called sister ylum platty helman thees wow out nerding me on my own podcast. I feel so good, feel so good to be right, being smugly right, is actually one of the treatments for COVID. My not to get too far from the show. But um, when my son plays candy Land or he plays you know with his mom, he gets real excited if he wins, and he'll come like over me, like I won, and I'm like, well, don't tell me. Go rub it in her face, go

back to her and show her that you won. And he's like okay. And my wife obviously does not like that. But it's so funny to watch a young child get in her face and go I won, I won. I mean, those are just essential life skills. I think the whole rubbing stuff and other people's faces that they need to learn at a young age so that when they're older they can have a podcast, they can actually go on other people's podcasts and do it to them, right. Right.

So you may be wondering, why does the this horrifying huge tape worm have to produce so many gosh darn eggs? Right? Um, Well, the reason they're so nasty and make billions of eggs is that they need to play the game of large numbers living in a vast ocean with relatively few sperm whales. Because the ocean is so big, and you don't have like a huge density of sperm whales, you have to do like a Didos attack and spoof the ocean with millions and millions of eggs to make sure that some

of your eggs get ingested by another whale. So basically, like, the more eggs you pump out, the more likely it's going to get ingested by some unlucky whales. So you just do as many goddamn eggs as you can possibly push out. I get it. The ocean is big, yeah, and yeah, it's just it's a light. It's the hustle, it's the grind, it's the you know, having sex with your own segments so you can produce more eggs having it's called multitasking, having fourteen gonads at once. So um.

So on that note, I think we're going to take a quick break and then hey, we're going to come back to another parasite. Don't you worry if you we ran out of parasites. We didn't. We never will. They're just so many, all right. So we talked about the very sexist whale roundworm that targets the uterus of female sperm whales. So now let's talk about some misssand dressed ruled Bachia bacteria. This is the reverse sexism that everyone's

been talking about, finally revealed. So fellas, if you ever wanted to know what it's like to be oppressed just because you're a man, you should become a butterfly. Oh no, there, I mean, I guess I shouldn't be surprised. But there are parasites for butterflies. Yeah, they their lives are like a week. The world is a cruel and dark place. Um, but it's it's fun it's funny though, sense of humor. So. Wolbachia is a genus of bacteria that are parasitic microbes

that infect all sorts of arthropods. In fact, it's estimated that of arthropod species can be infected by Wolbachia. So arthur pods are anything from crabs to spiders, too, insects to butterflies, but we are specifically going to focus on butterflies. Wolbachia strains that infect many species of butterfly try to kill off male butterflies so that there's a higher proportion of females, and they also make female butterflies have sex more often, which you know but butterflies are girls, moths

are boys. Mm hmm. Cats. I thought cats were girls and dogs were boys. That's cats are cats are girls, dogs are boys, Dolphins are girls, Sharks are boys. Mm hmm. You know, I think that's everything. I feel like, um, there's something wrong with that, but I can't put my finger on it. Also, typically a butterfly species, the females tend to be a bit more drab than the males. Uh. The males are often a little more brightly colored. So yeah, yeah,

I mean not always. Sometimes there's not so much sexual dimorphism, but sometimes there is. Where Like, it's not that the females aren't colorful, but sometimes they're just a little bit less flashy than the males. So I mean the butterflies. It's important. This is obviously off tangent. But for butterflies, does it is it like birds? Like it matters how bright the male is? Yeah? Yeah, uh yeah it can. That flashiness can attract a mate for sure. I mean

they are investing a lot in that. Uh. Sometimes, like the coloration is both for attracting a mate. Sometimes it's um uh, it is a warning coloration to prevent predators from eating them. Sometimes it's mimicry of warning coloration, and they are edible, but then they're pretending not to be.

So there are many different uses for the beautiful patterns found on butterflies, but yes, it can be for for mate selection, okay, um, And yeah, I mean it's it's similar in the way that like, you know, bright flowers can be very attractive to like bees and other pollinators. So having bright, flashy colors, it's going to bring attention to yourself as a butterfly, and getting attention is one of the most important things you can do when you

are looking to reproduce. That's like the number one thing you have to be noticed if you're ever going to have a chance. And that whole thing about like trying to get noticed can take some very ridiculous forms, um that we've talked about on the podcast before, like just the ridiculous ways that birds act, like bower birds create a whole like museum of weird items for females to look at just to be showy. Unfortunately, we are not

talking about cute birds right now. We're talking about uh, super sexist bacteria that wants to do away with as many male butterflies as possible. Now I say, wants to This is obviously bacteria. It's not got too many thoughts going on. Some might say no thoughts going on? So what is it? It's, uh, this teeny tiny microbe and

it lives inside the reproductive cells of butterflies. Will Bakia prefers female hosts because it can be transferred from the female reproductive cells to the eggs to the next generation of butterflies. So this is how it propagates. So it it needs the female butterflies, but it doesn't really need

male butterflies. So they will actually kill off the embryos of male butterflies within the egg by messing with their development, and this skews the butterfly population to have way more females, and this benefits the Wolbachia bacteria because then they have way more hosts who can pass on infected eggs flies or girls. That's no, they're not all girls. No, not quite yet. Uh. There there's some interesting twists in terms with that though. So, uh, this is not like I said,

bacteria don't really have minds or brains. They actually, I mean literally, they don't have brains. So this is not intentional infanticide. The bacteria has no idea what it's doing. And also evolution doesn't sort of operate on this overseer kind of way, so it's not like, oh, well, we want to kill off the males so that there are more females. So however this happens, it has to be kind of by either by quote unquote accident or sort of a random mutation or random happenstance that ends up

benefiting the bacteria. So what's likely happening is a lucky accident for the Wolbachia. The male embryonic development is incompatible with the presence of the bacteria, whereas the female embryonic development is not, and this happens to increase the proportion of females for the bacteria to use as a host.

And since Wolbakia doesn't have like a hundred percent success rate in terms of infecting butterflies, there are males still to keep the population going, and so it can be a stable system, unless, of course, it's too successful and it kills off too many males and then species of

butterfly cannot exist or it reaches a genetic bottleneck. The Wolbachia infection also actually causes female butterflies to mate with more males than they would typically, So so okay, this is uh, these poor males um who are just a fraction of the female population, are a super hot commodity. I mean, like you have all the females wanting to mate with them, which is exhausting for a poor little butterfly and causes their sperm packets to become smaller and

of poorer quality. So they're literally these male butterflies are literally exhausted from all the sex they're having to have with these demanding females. And not just that, I mean you've seen butterflies out in the wild a gentle breeze and that butterflies like all over the place. It can barely move ten ft from one plant to another without

being blown all over the place. It looks like they're they're walking in a torrential river like at all times they're being they have no choice in where they go. So it's got to be exhausting in general to be a butterfly and then to have to then have sex all the time. Yeah, it sounds like a nightmare. It's you know, they're very delicate creatures and they have to do with sex marathon just sounds like torment, so they are they continually do this because you're like, okay, yeah, yeah,

let's do it again. I'm ready. I'm ready, I'm ready. No, no, no no, really really, um, So it is exhausting for these butterflies. It causes their sperm to degrade. So females can actually detect this, and uh, it makes them want to mate with more males because they're like, ah, that last guy I made it with, like his sperm packet was kind of shoddy, so I better try another male. Then they go with another exhausted male and they're like, oh, well this guy's sperm packet is also pretty shoddy. Well

I gotta try another one. So they keep trying all these males. The males are exhausted. It's this tornado of sex and well, baccia and I like that they can tell that the females like, they get it. They get it. They get a little packet and then they're like yeah, yeah, it feels a little light. Yeah yeah. I'm not sure that researchers know exactly how the females do it, um, but it is it is funny, like imagine just like going through a conveyor belt and a little like going

like ding ding ding, bad sperm. So you would think all these poor butterflies, you know, victims of this malicious bacteria,

and they're these fragile creatures. They have no way to fight back, or do they They do so evolutionarily they can fight back, and we actually can see this in real time, which is so cool because a lot of these evolutionary arms race between like a predator and prey or a parasite and its host, are hard to actually observe because they happen over you know, millions of years. But in the case of the blue moon butterflies, we've actually seen them evolved in real time in response to

the Wolbachia. So blue moon male butterflies found on the Simon Island of Savai were in trouble. They were only one person of the population, absolutely outnumbered by female males, but they managed to develop an adaptation within ten generations of butterflies, which is just a year in two thousand and six, and this genetic mutation allowed the male embryos

to survive the infection from Wolbakia. So within a year, this brought the male population up to of all the butterflies in the island, so that it's incredible that you can see this happen on such a fast scale. Wow, and so quickly I just looked at these things. These things are really cool looking. They're like a black butterfly that have just four little dots on them, really bright little dots. Yeah, they're they're very pretty. They're really beautiful.

The males seemed like they were defeated by this bacteria and then like tin generations, like one year of time, and then you see this sudden comeback because there is a mutation that allows these embryonic stage butterfly wies to survive the bacteria. It's incredible. So I do have to mention some other species of Wolbakia that infect different species of arthur pods because they're they're they're wacky and fun. So Wilbakia will change the sex ratios or even how

sex works for some species of animals. So wil Bakia can turn males into functional females by inhibiting androgen production. So this is the case for arthropods like crabs or pillbugs. In fact, some populations of the common pillbug are all genetically male, but enough are infected with Wolbakia that alters them to be functionally female, that the population is stable, Like they're all genetically speaking, they are all boys. But the will box silver fisher girls. Oh god, we don't

claim them silverfish. Uh, they're the worst bug. I hate those. They leave their little dusties on the wall. God. I love almost every single bug except for silverfish and um, house cockroaches because they're hey, come on now, because they're greasy. Man, They're like, they're they're great. Anyways, that's a tangent. I

won't hate on cockroaches on this show. Um. But yeah, I mean that's like they the bacteria have success like completely changed these populations of pill bugs where they are all born male and some of them turn into females because of the infection from the wolbakia, and they're able to survive because they're they become functionally female, and that

population is stable, so it needs it. That's crazy. It needs the Yeah, it becomes dependent on the Wolbachia to continue that population, so at that point stops being a parasite and becomes it like it becomes like a symbiotic relationship. I mean, that's a really interesting question because it's like is it at this point. It's a parasite when it is causing harm to the host and not offering any benefit. It's symbiotic when both of the animals in the relationship

are benefiting. And so it's like, does it count as being like symbiotic when it's solved the problem that it comes in the first place. I don't really know. It's a good question. I I yeah, that that seems like a kind of I mean, I guess like at this stage, Yeah, they are somewhat symbiotic because they are dependent on each other. That is so interesting and I didn't really think about it that way, But that's messed up. Look what I'm

doing for you. Look, I'm healthy. I mean, there are like some theories that things like mitochondria in in certain aspects of our biology. It started out as maybe not parasitic, but a symbiotic relationship that just become became sort of like completely linked forever. So you now cannot live without it and it cannot live without you, which you know. I guess that's the ultimate friendship usefulness. How useful are you to your friends being codependent? Yes, a healthy relationship. So, uh,

I guess we've we've finally done it. We've talked about some of the nastiest parasites in the animal Kingdom. You can pick up that big, sloppy plate of yoki and spaghetti and you know, I don't know, uh like noodles, what other foods? I love that you've got in your mind. Everyone in your your audience is eating multiple types of pasta once. I mean, I live in Italy. It's a life. I'm actually having pasta tonight. But it's fun, little square shaped pasta, so I don't have to imagine that it's

a parasite unless there's a square shaped parasite out there. Oh, I gotta find out what there is. But before we go, we've got to play a little game I like to call guess who's squawking the mystery at the sound game. I feel at this every single time that I still live with the fact that I missed the cassowary because cassowary is such a great animal. It's so important to me. It is good with little stabby fee. Well, maybe you can redeem yourself this time. I mean it's gonna be hard, though.

It's a hard one at me. So here is the hint. They sound like drunks on land and alien spaceships in the sea, but they're always chill. H m hm. Okay, that was them on the surface. Now here are them underwater? Alright, So, oh my god, that's easy peasy. Well, that sounds like there's some sonar happening underwater. Interesting, it's I know, there's a creature that has sort of a dome shaped head that acts very much like a satellite dish for sonar.

But remember this, animals found both on land and in the sea. Oh. I figured it was just something that was like popping its head up every once in a while. Like, no, they are found on the land and in the sea. Oh no, what would be using won't be barking like that on the surface, okay, and then making those noises underwater. The only thing I can think is it's got to be like a a leopard seal or a walrus or something very interesting. Guests, so you're super close. It is

a wettle seal. So it is a seal. So congratulations to Aaron, Kay, Pete K and Hailey D the three fastest gissers to answer correctly. So, yes, it is a wettle seal. And uh, it is a large gray and white splotchy seal found in icy regions near the Antarctic. They can make vocalizations both on land and in the ocean. On and they make these wonderful grunting noises, but under the water they can make these whistles and trills that sound like an alien spaceship. Each seal actually has its

own unique song. In addition to what we can hear, they also produce ultrasonic sounds. What for what purpose? So yeah, they lack the anatomy for precise echolocation, but research believe they use these ultrasonic sounds to be able to find breathing holes in the ice during the darkness of winter so they don't get disoriented and run out of air. So they're probably the world's cutest, little weirdo spaceships. Yes, I gotta find those holes. Anything we've learned from this

episode is you gotta find the holes. Say you were you did gets seal, So I think that you can count that as a victory. Okay, yeah, I guess leopard sealic idiot, Although if you looked at a wettle seal and I don't actually know the difference, like damn it. Of course, a wet seal, A leopard seal. What a fool I've been? Uh? Sor are you ready for this week's mry animal? Sound? All right? Here is the hint.

In the winter they wear white, In the summer they wear brown, but all year round they sound like dinghis is uh. I think that that might be some sort of fairetish creature like a mink. M hmm, interesting, very interesting Those change color right in the winter. Yeah, yeah, there are There are stoats that change their colors. Yes, yeah, a long as like the the weener dogs of weasels. That's what I'm thinking of, Yes, exactly. So that is

an interesting guess um. But I am going to leave you hanging because I will reveal the answer next week on next week's creature feature. Saren, thank you so much for joining me my pleasure. Thanks for having me, and thank you for suggesting we talked about the warble flies. I love talking about some disgusting parasites. Me too. Actually, I really enjoyed it. Feels like it was a salve

to my COVID. Yeah, you know, it's like you do have COVID, but at least you don't have a sperm whales, tape worm kind of coiled up, basically entirely making up what should be you. Yeah, I don't have five of me inside and that feels pretty good. I think God every day I don't have five of me inside of me. So, uh, where can the people find you? You can find me on Twitter at sore and Underscore Ltd. Or you can find me on my podcast with Daniel O'Brien, also a

crack of lump. You do a podcast called Quick Question with Soren and Daniel, and you can just watch my episodes of American Dead. We just had our season premiere a couple of weeks ago. And hey, that was a sore booie joint. That was an episode that I wrote. It's the Wheels and the leg Man episode, kind of a noir story. Oh nice, nice American War with hard boiled eggs and them fatals, you know, the whole thing. No, no,

with gum gum shoes shoes man out of gum. Oh so you were there your own track for a second investigations and who robbed the horse farm? Anyways? Did check that out? So and I sure hope you feel better soon, Get well soon, Rest up, dream sweet dreams of Butcher's Jelly and at that nourish your body and soul. Thank you, Yeah, but seriously, I hope you feel better soon. Thank you

very much. It was a pleasure, Katie. Yeah, thanks for coming on, and thank you to the you, thank you to the you, the listener for listening, and thanks to the Space Classics for their super awesome song Exo Lumina. Preacher features a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts like the one you just heard, visit the I heart Radio app Apple Podcasts, or Hey, guess what wherever you listen your favorite shows. I don't judge you. See you next Wednesday.