Last week, I kicked off this new series about the weird and wonderful things in nature with the mind controlling parasitic cordyceps fungus, which takes over an insects brain in order to reproduce. But what if I told you that there are even weirder parasites out there that take mind control to another level. Its time to delve into the strange world of zombie snails and suicidal rodents. A world that's still puzzling scientists to this day
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| Green-banded Broodsac Flatworms pulsating from a snail |
The green-banded broodsac (
Leucochloridium paradoxum) is a flatworm with a bizarre lifecycle. Found across Europe and North America, it starts its life within bird droppings. Along comes a snail that eats the dropping, worm and all. This is exactly what the worm wants. At this point, the worm larvae travels around the snail's digestive system until it is ready for the next part of its development. Suddenly, the eye-stalk of the snail becomes a pulsating, swollen advertisement as the worm becomes what's known as a sporocyst or 'broodsac'. The worm has made the snail an eye catching target for predators, specifically birds. In order to get to its next stage of its complicated lifecycle, it needs to enter a bird's digestive system. To do that, not only does the worm pretend to be an irresistible maggot, it also controls the snail's mind and forces it to climb to higher ground to be more exposed. A bird then comes down and eats the snail's eye stalk. The snail is still alive and can grow its eye stalk back, as well as more sporocysts. Meanwhile, inside the bird, the worm enters adulthood and the whole cycle begins again.
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| Horsehair Worm coming out of a cricket |
While the snail gets to continue to live its life despite having its eye stalks harvested every now and then, nothing can be said about the victim of the horsehair worm (
Spinochordodes tellinii). Horsehair worms begin their lives in water as microscopic larvae, but they need grasshoppers or crickets to continue their development. When a grasshopper arrives for a drink, the young worms enter their host, where they develop into adults. While inside their host, the worm can grow four times longer than the actual length of the grasshopper's body! Once the worm reaches maturity, they need to return to water to complete their lifecycle. This is bad news for the grasshopper, as the worm somehow manipulates its brain and force it to commit suicide by jumping into the water and drowning. Poor grasshopper!
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| Toxoplasma gondii |
Could there be anything more stranger than zombie snails and suicidal grasshoppers? Well, yes, yes there is. My final tale from the strange world of mind controlling parasites takes everything that I explained so far to another level.
Toxoplasma gondii is a type of protozoa, which is a single celled organism, that thrives in the bodies of cats. It reproduces asexually, meaning it splits itself in two, but in order to spread itself to other cats it does something truly weird. After a cat does its business, the soil in which it defecates on becomes contaminated and this is where T. gondii gets to spread onto plants, which eventually gets eaten by rodents, the main target of this single celled parasite. Normally, as we all know, rodents, such as rats and mice, tend to fear cats and avoid them at all possible. However, if infected by T. gondii, they lose all fear of cats. In fact, they are manipulated to be an easy target to catch. Once the cat catches the infected mouse, T. gondii infects the cat and the cycle begins all over again.
That's not all. It is said that between one-third to half of all people alive today is infected with T. gondii. If you own a cat, the chances of having this parasite is pretty high. Studies suggest that it causes subtle changes in personality and it has also been linked with schizophrenia. But before you start fearing your pet cat and worrying what it has infected you with, the chances are, you will probably live a normal life. Though it does bring new light to the term 'crazy cat person'.
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