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Eww! But kinda awesome at the same time.

This parasitic worm crawls into the eyestalks of snails, takes over its brain then pulsates to make the mollusk look like a dancing caterpillar.

[livescience.com]

Ryo1 8 Oct 2
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Yes... I've read several books about parasites because they are so fascinating. I call them the "dark side of evolution", because we rarely notice them but they are ubiquitous. Every organism out there is on average host to four parasitic species

Makes sense considering that milllions of microorganisms share our bodies with us, i.e. the human body hosts millions of them.

@Ryo1 Yes, but most of them are mutualists (i.e. both sides benefit, for example most of the bacteria in our guts, without them, we would be in deep trouble), or they are commensalists (one side benefits while the host is not harmed; the mite Demodex folliculorum is my favorite example)

@Thibaud70
Demodex folliculorum looks kinda cute. I don't want to have them in my eyelashes, though.😆

@Ryo1 Most people have them, but they are harmless, and you don't even notice.
If they were parasites, you would notice one way or another

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