Invasion of the crab-body snatchers!

Did you know that there are parasites in the animal world that actually "body-snatch" by taking over a host and forcing it to do what the parasite wants? One such parasite, called Sacculina (pictured left), begins life swimming peacefully through the water, resembling a tiny shrimp, but as soon as it finds a host crab, its agenda changes! It sheds its body and injects a tiny blob of cells into the crab which grows tentacles throughout the entire crab, including its brain. Rendered helpless, everything the crab does is now controlled by the cunning and relentless Sacculina. Although the crab eats, it can't grow since all of its food feeds greedy Sacculina, and can't breed but cares for Sacculina's young as if they were its own, even though the babies will eventually move on to inflict themselves on other unsuspecting crabs! Sacculina even makes its male crab victims behave like females in order to better care for its babies! Learn about this freaky parasite and many others in What's eating you? : parasites--the inside story, by Nicola Davies. It is located in the Children's Room at J 591.65 DAVI.