A Terrifying Parasite Turns Snails into Zombie Hosts
A Succinea snail that has been infected by a zombifying parasite
shutterstock/JoostP
Rise of the Zombie Bugs
Mindy Weisberger (Johns Hopkins University Press)
A snail, with its eyestalks pulsing with coloured stripes, ventures out from the safety of the shade onto an exposed leaf. Little does it know, it has caught the attention of a bird, mistaking its eyestalks for delicious caterpillars. In a swift move, the bird pounces on the snail, inadvertently ingesting the parasitic worms that have infested the Succinea putris snail.
This unfortunate mollusc is not an isolated case; parasites that manipulate their host’s behavior are a common occurrence in nature.
