Leucochloridium variae
Encyclopedia
Leucochloridium variae, common name brown-banded broodsac, is a species of a parasite that invades snail
s and makes their eye stalks swollen, pulsating and colourful.
This maggot
-resembling feature attracts birds. The bird rips off the eye stalk and eats it and later on the parasite's egg
is dropped with the bird's feces
. Similar life-histories are found in most species in the genus Leucochloridium
including Leucochloridium paradoxum
.
The snail regenerates a replacement eye stalk, which also becomes infected by the parasite.
Director Harold Tichenor made a film Life Cycle of Leucochloridium variae in 1969.
There was no finding of difference in length of shells in parasited an in non-parasited snails.
Hosts of Leucochloridium variae include:
Snail
Snail is a common name applied to most of the members of the molluscan class Gastropoda that have coiled shells in the adult stage. When the word is used in its most general sense, it includes sea snails, land snails and freshwater snails. The word snail without any qualifier is however more often...
s and makes their eye stalks swollen, pulsating and colourful.
This maggot
Maggot
In everyday speech the word maggot means the larva of a fly ; it is applied in particular to the larvae of Brachyceran flies, such as houseflies, cheese flies, and blowflies, rather than larvae of the Nematocera, such as mosquitoes and Crane flies...
-resembling feature attracts birds. The bird rips off the eye stalk and eats it and later on the parasite's egg
Egg (biology)
An egg is an organic vessel in which an embryo first begins to develop. In most birds, reptiles, insects, molluscs, fish, and monotremes, an egg is the zygote, resulting from fertilization of the ovum, which is expelled from the body and permitted to develop outside the body until the developing...
is dropped with the bird's feces
Feces
Feces, faeces, or fæces is a waste product from an animal's digestive tract expelled through the anus or cloaca during defecation.-Etymology:...
. Similar life-histories are found in most species in the genus Leucochloridium
Leucochloridium
Leucochloridium is genus of parasitic worms.-Species:Species in the genus Leucochloridium include:* Leucochloridium caryocatactis * Leucochloridium fuscostriatum Robinson, 1948...
including Leucochloridium paradoxum
Leucochloridium paradoxum
Leucochloridium paradoxum, common name green-banded broodsac, is a parasitic flatworm that uses gastropods as an intermediate host.-Life cycle:...
.
The snail regenerates a replacement eye stalk, which also becomes infected by the parasite.
Director Harold Tichenor made a film Life Cycle of Leucochloridium variae in 1969.
Hosts
Intermediate host of Leucochloridium variae include:- Novisuccinea ovalisNovisuccinea ovalisNovisuccinea ovalis, common name the oval ambersnail, is a species of air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Succineidae, the ambersnails.- External links :...
There was no finding of difference in length of shells in parasited an in non-parasited snails.
Hosts of Leucochloridium variae include:
- Turdus migratorius - North American Robin
- Larus canus - experimental host
- Taeniopygia guttata - experimental host
External links
- Paul D. Lewis, Jr. - Helminths of Terrestrial Molluscs in Nebraska. II. Life Cycle of Leucochloridium variae McIntosh, 1932 (Digenea: Leucochloridiidae). - The Journal of Parasitology, Vol. 60, No. 2 (Apr., 1974), pp. 251–255
- A parasite for sore eyes - Article in the Daily Mirror
- Video on You Tube