Since the theme of this thread is things random and off topic, and I for one seem to post only about The Orange Menace, I thought I'd change things up a bit and return to the theme by sharing some important information about threadworm infestations in Madagascan lemurs, from my favourite publication, The Economist:
""Ms Peckre watched with fascination the habit of some red-fronted lemurs she had under observation in the Kirindy Forest, in Madagascar, of gnawing on benzoquinone-rich millipedes and rubbing the remains around their anuses, then swallowing them. She saw six lemurs doing this and was left wondering, why?
Lemurs’ anal regions are furry and are rarely attacked by bloodsucking arthropods. Nor would swallowing dismembered pieces of millipede seem likely to deter something that was attacking the skin. Pieces of the puzzle started to come together, though, when she and her colleagues noticed, by analysing the lemurs’ faeces, that times of peak millipede use coincided with threadworm infestations in the lemurs’ guts.
Threadworms have the repulsive habit of slithering out of their host’s anus at night and laying their eggs in the soft flesh nearby. The site where the eggs are laid itches. The infested individual either scratches or licks the site, gets the eggs on its fingers or tongue, and ultimately either swallows them or passes them on to others during grooming sessions.
Human beings, who are frequent hosts of threadworms, can deal with them using drugs such as benzimidazole, which are similar in structure to benzoquinone. Ms Peckre therefore suspects that her lemurs are employing millipedes in lieu of a trip to the pharmacy.""
