{"id":187126,"date":"2025-12-16T07:08:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T07:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/187126\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T07:08:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T07:08:09","slug":"electric-eel-found-in-brazil-more-than-150-years-ago-a-strange-creature-was-just-discovered-on-its-body","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/187126\/","title":{"rendered":"Electric eel found in Brazil more than 150 years ago. A strange creature was just discovered on its body"},"content":{"rendered":"

A surprising discovery has emerged from the depths of the collections at Harvard University\u2019s Museum of Comparative Zoology. Two ticks were found attached to an electric eel collected from northern Brazil in 1872. This is the first-ever instance of ticks found attached to a fish.<\/p>\n

A\u00a0paper\u00a0recently published in the\u00a0Journal of Medical Entomology<\/a>\u00a0describes a specimen of\u00a0Electrophorus varii\u00a0into which two ticks<\/a> of the species\u00a0Amblyomma cajennense\u00a0are embedded \u2013 seeking blood from a seemingly atypical source.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The specimen was initially flagged by a researcher working in the collections in 2009 but not formally described until a colleague told Kaylin Chong \u2013 the paper\u2019s author \u2013 that there were ticks in the ichthyological collection.<\/p>\n

\"TickTwo ticks were found embedded in the skin of the electric eel \u2013 the first known instance of ticks parasitising a fish. Credit: Chong 2025, Journal of Medical Entomology<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I started working on ticks, I became fascinated by the idea that they might exist not only in the invertebrate collections but remain still attached to their hosts. Previous to finding the electric eel, I was looking at ticks on iguanas,\u201d says Chong. Andrew Williston, curatorial associate of ichthyology at MCZ, informed her that an electric eel in the collection had ticks attached to it.<\/p>\n

With his assistance, Chong located the specimen \u2013 indeed, two ticks were embedded in its shrivelled side. She pulled one out for closer examination and identification.<\/p>\n

Until now,\u00a0A. cajennense\u00a0has been thought to parasitise mostly mammals, such as capybaras<\/a> and horses, with\u00a0some records<\/a>\u00a0of the juveniles parasitising birds. Other species of\u00a0Amblyomma\u00a0tick have been found attached to cold-blooded vertebrates \u2013 reptiles and amphibians<\/a>. One species in the same genus has even been recorded feeding on sea snakes<\/a>, indicating an ability to survive underwater.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTicks are obligate blood feeders and at the end of the day, blood (even if not from the preferred host) is food,\u201d says Chong. \u201cMany ticks have a broad host range allowing them to feed on a variety of mammals, birds and reptiles.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ticks have been known to survive in water for up to\u00a070 days<\/a>\u00a0so their attachment to an aquatic creature is not entirely surprising. They are able to capture a thin layer of air using hydrophobic hairs and use it to respirate for surprisingly long periods.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The records attached to the specimen are sparse, making it impossible to determine the circumstances of the attachment of the ticks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They may have located their host while it was traversing the land between two waterways. Or they may have latched on after the eel was captured by Charles Linden, the high school teacher who collected it over a century ago. The eel was one of around 100 specimens Linden donated to the Museum of Comparative Zoology following his 1872 expedition.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince both ticks don\u2019t appear to be engorged, this could suggest that they weren’t attached for very long: perhaps 1\u20132 days,\u201d Chong adds.<\/p>\n

The discovery indicates the resilience and adaptability of these arachnids<\/a> \u2013 which recent research has indicated can even\u00a0fly through the air<\/a>\u00a0using static electricity. Sharknados may be fictional but scuba-diving and paragliding ticks are real \u2013 and that may actually be even more impressive.<\/p>\n

Top image: ticks on eel. Credit: Chong 2025, Journal of Medical Entomology<\/p>\n

More wildlife stories from around the world<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A surprising discovery has emerged from the depths of the collections at Harvard University\u2019s Museum of Comparative Zoology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":187127,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[85,46,141,386],"class_list":{"0":"post-187126","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}