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Anonymous
Leucochloridium paradoxum

It's a parasite that infests the feelers of snails.
The maggots are very colorful and pulsate, luring birds to eat the snail.
Once eaten by the bird, the parasite will now infest the bird.
>> Anonymous
wikipedia is failing link to more info plz
>> Anonymous
>>49370
http://www.weichtiere.at/Mollusks/Schnecken/parasitismus/leucochloridium.html
>> Anonymous
Hardcore.
>> Anonymous
Don't they also cause the snails' brain or something making them climb up?

I remember seeing a documentary about that stuff... Like zombies or something :O
>> Scythemantis
Yep, they cause the snail to crawl out in the open sun where birds can easily see the beacons.

They're not maggots though, but an actual worm. Maggots would be insect larvae :)
>> Anonymous
>>49374
There's a parasite that inhabits ants' brains and make them climb up to the tip of a grass blade, where they'll wait until a rabbit eats them.
>> Anonymous
ok now i'm curious. what happens to the bird after it eats the snail+parasite? does it change color too?
>> Anonymous
>>49411

No, the bird is just the vector by which the parasite is transferred. Kind of like malaria doesn't kill mosquitoes, just uses them to transfer the malaria parasite from one warm-blooded animal to another.
>> Anonymous
omg hardcore..
nature is the real Fucktard
>> Anonymous
>>50274
Quite.

Have you seen these faggots in action?

Nature documentaries in bio aren't always a good thing. I'm pretty sure I would've been fine with just the textbook examples of parasitism. =|
>> l33k !OK8FhyWNXk
80% of all species are parasitic in nature.
and 67% of all statistics are made up on the spot.
>> Anonymous
>>49399

I think there's also a fungus which causes ants to climb to trees when the fungus has eaten almost all of their organs. Flies have a somewhat similar fungal disease too, but I don't know its name either.
>> Anonymous
You guys have been reading that book Peeps, haven't you?
Admit it, you just read it because it involved "vampire" sex.
>> Architeuthis !n8DM/3U.xE
Parasite Rex. Awesome book, by Carl Zimmer. Read it and be grossed out at how pervasive parasites are :3
>> Anonymous
>>50589

most depressing book ever
>> Anonymous
IIRC most people have a kind of parasite that makes them like cats. I'm going by memory here.. rats that get the parasite go twoards cat urine, and are eaten by cats, right?