Darwinian selection

If you have a delicate disposition, read no further.  This post is, and there really is no other word for it, disgusting.

It all started with David having a day at the Landcare site on Diamond Beach, selflessly massacring a huge infestation of prickly pear, or it might have been bitou bush.  I forget, but both species require a jolly good massacre, they have no place in a patch of mid north coast littoral rainforest. Anyway, he put all his work clothes in the laundry basket that night and noticed nothing untoward.

But had he looked closely, he would have seen this, on the back of his ankle.

 And the following day, while doing the washing, I noticed this black thing that seemed to be stuck on his sock, which had turned dark red and stiff.

I turned the sock inside out, curiouser and curiouser.  This (below) is what was on the inside

Have you worked it out yet? I wasn't sure until I soaked the sock in a bucket.  This is the most disgusting bit, by the way. Here is what happened.

Yes, that black thing was a leech.  it had taken itself out of the gene pool by sucking onto David's ankle from the OUTSIDE of his sock, it stuck its sucking end through the knitted surface onto skin, got full and fat with blood on either side of the sock, and then couldn't pull itself free. So by the time I found it,  half of it was dried up on the inside of the sock and the other half on the outside. Poor little nature's creature. What a way to go. Darwinian evolution at work. Note to self, leech: get inside the sock first.