In his book Hidden Creatures: Luscious Leeches, Bashful Botflies and the Wondrous, History-Shaping World of Parasites, Dino Martins takes readers on a journey through the revolting yet fascinating world of parasites. From maggots to viruses, the compendium celebrates the awe and inventiveness of nature while detailing the horrors these creatures inflict.
Viruses and Parasites: Nature's Stowaways
When Craig Venter, one of the mappers of the human genome, set out to map DNA in seawater across the globe, he discovered that a teaspoon of seawater contained on average 50 million viruses. While alarming, most of these are phages that infect marine bacteria and pose no threat to humans. Viruses are parasites, and like all parasitic kind, they get a free ride from living organisms. The purpose of multicellular life is to create a cozy environment for cells, and evolution has invented stowaways that exploit this comfort. Most diseases in the developing world are linked to parasitic infections.
Four Tracks of Narrative
Martins' book unfolds along four writerly tracks. The first is lyrical descriptions of nature by a keen observer. Lyricism extends to horror, such as a rotting elephant carcass in Kenyan noon sunlight, slowly dissolved by a mass of maggots. “A boiling cauldron of maggot stew undulates in steamy waves,” Martins writes, as he cups his hands in the liquefying flesh to sample maggot species. The tone then switches to taxonomic, listing genera and orders of various beasties. Martins marvels at nature's creativity.
Then comes the charge sheet. One horrifying section details the life cycle of eye worms. Female worms lay eggs that hatch, and larvae swim out into tears. Flies drawn to that “weeping of worms” lap up the larvae; inside the fly, larvae burrow from the gut into testes or egg follicles, mature, then migrate to the fly's head. When the fly visits another animal's eyes for a drink, the larvae pop out, and the cycle repeats.
Awe and Revulsion
At several points, Martins switches to “exterminate the brutes” mode after explaining the fiendish cleverness of a parasite's life cycle that causes misery in millions. Finally, he delights readers with charming anecdotes of his field trips in Kenya and conversations with students and farmers. The book elicits admiration for the brilliance of the parasitic scam, revulsion at the sting, and resolve to end it. Ultimately, Martins conveys awe at the diversity and inventiveness of the living world.
