Cynthia the Cymothoid Monster Girl

Here comes another Parasite Monster Girl - finally one that is based on the infamous "tongue-biter louse" (which is not actually a louse, but a crustacean). This has been a parasite that I have wanted to draw as a Parasite Monster Girl ever since I started drawing them over a year ago, but I've only gotten to it now. While her design was based mostly on the said tongue-biter louse, she's an also an amalgamation of characteristics from species in the Cymothoidae family - the family of crustacean that the tongue-biter are in. Those who follow me on Twitter would know I am a big fan of this family of parasites. I mean, I even went on a radio program to talk about how much I like them...

The cymothoids are crustaceans from the order Isopoda, so in the same order as slaters/woodlice (which you might find in a garden) and the more well-known Bathynomus (also known as the giant deep sea isopod). However, cymothoids have specialised adaptations for parasitism. While the tongue-biters (yes, there are multiple different species of them, not just one) are the most famous of that, there are also cymothoid that live externally hanging off the fish's body (I've called some of them "face-huggers"), or internally in the fish's body cavity.

As you might have gather from the above, I think the tongue-biter louse (and its family of other parasitic crustaceans) are quite adorable and cute, hopefully that is reflected in how I have depicted Cynthia here...