Mucophagy

Last night I disgust discussed the idea of writing about this topic with my husband on SKYPE as I often do. I figured I’d get some positive input on this one because after all it was his idea that led me to write about the snot-eating bone-flower worm but in the case of mucophagy, an endorsement from him was snot happening. He even went so far as to say that if I picked this topic I would snot be picking a winner. All this from someone who admittedly nose nothing about mucophagy and when I mentioned the very word answered with “Huh?”

At the time of this discussion on SKYPE,

[4/30/2013 9:51 PM] Jo Mount: I don't have anything written for my blog tomorrow so I will be getting up and getting busy with that in the morning.

I hadn’t actually done any research on the word mucophagy so this morning I figured I’d Google it. I found that like most words mucophagy has more than one meaning.

In the first part of the definition I found out that mucophagy is the feeding on mucus of fishes or invertebrates. And that there are mucophagous parasites, such as sea lice that attach themselves to gill segments of fish. This immediately made me think of the bone-eating snot-flower worm that also lives under the sea. Also, mucophages may serve as cleaners of other animals. Remoras attaching themselves to sharks (like the one that took a bite out of Captain Jim’s boat in a previous post came to mind also).

Then I read the second part of the definition: It may also refer to consumption of mucus or dried mucus in primates.

Here is when I suddenly remembered that I hadn't had breakfast yet and in fact if I read any further I might snot be able to stomach any this morning. Already after just my morning cup of coffee I was feeling a bit queasy. Dang Skippy, it’s really snot that hard to admit this, but maybe I should have listened to my husband and picked a different topic after all.