Cymothoa exigua, or the tongue-eating louse, is a parasitic isopod of the family Cymothoidae. It enters fish through the gills. The female attaches to the tongue, while the male attaches to the gill arches beneath and behind the female. Females are long and wide. Males are about long and wide. The parasite severs the blood vessels in the fish's tongue, causing the tongue to fall off. It then attaches itself to the remaining stub of tongue and the parasite itself effectively serves as the fish's new "tongue". Behavior Using its front claws, C. exigua severs the blood vessels in the fish's tongue, causing the tongue to necrose from lack of blood. The parasite then replaces the fish's tongue by attaching its own body to the muscles of the tongue stub. The parasite apparently does not cause much other damage to the host fish, but Lanzing and O'Connor (1975) reported that infested fish with two or more of the parasites are usually underweight. Once C. exigua replaces the tongue, some feed on the host's blood and many others feed on fish mucus. This is the only known case of a parasite assumed to be functionally replacing a host organ. When a host fish dies, C. exigua, after some time, detaches itself from the tongue stub and leaves the fish's oral cavity. It can then be seen clinging to its head or body externally. What then happens to the parasite in the wild is unknown. Many species of Cymothoa have been identified, and only cymothoid isopods are known to consume and replace the host's organs. Other species of isopods known to parasitize fish in this way include C. borbonica and Ceratothoa imbricata. Different cymothoid genera are adapted to specific areas of attachment on the host. This includes scale-clingers, mouth- or gill-dwellers, and flesh-burrowers. Distribution C. exigua is quite widespread. It can be found from the Gulf of California southward to north of the Gulf of Guayaquil, Ecuador, as well as in parts of the Atlantic. It has been found in waters from to almost deep. This isopod is known to parasitize eight species in two orders and four families of fishes—seven species of order Perciformes: three snappers (Lutjanidae), one species of grunt (Haemulidae), three drums (Sciaenidae), and one species of order Atheriniformes: one grunion (Atherinidae). New hosts from Costa Rica include the Colorado snapper, Lutjanus colorado and Jordan's snapper, L. jordani. In