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Chapter 2

TREMATODES

The natural world is jaw-droppingly horrible Appalling, nasty, vile

Take trematodes, for example

Trematodes are tiny fish that live in the stomach of a bird (How did that happen? Horribly Just keep reading) They lay their eggs in the bird&039;s stos are on their way They hatch and swi for a snail These tres in a snail&039;s eye, as we used to say in Texas

Well, okay We never said that in Texas But trematodes actually do it For some reason, they always choose the left eye When the babies hatch, they eat the snail&039;s left eye and spread throughout its body (Didn&039;t I say this would be horrible?) But they don&039;t kill the snail Not right away

First, the half-blind snail gets a gnawing feeling in the pit of its story It starts to eat but for soets to where the snail&039;s stomach used to be, all that&039;s left down there is tre their meals delivered The snail can&039;t mate, or sleep, or enjoy life in any other snaily way It has beco food for its horrible little passengers

After a while, the tre on their poor host They invade the snail&039;s antennae, ht colors A bird passing overhead sees this brightly colored, twitching snail and says, "Yuets eaten, and the trematodes are back up in a bird&039;s stomach, ready to parachute into the next pond over

Welcome to the wonderful world of parasites

This is where I live

One y (for a few pages)

When I first read about trematodes, I alondered why the bird would eat this twitching, oddly colored snail Eventually, wouldn&039;t the birds evolve to avoid any snail with a glowing left eye? This is a nasty, trematode-infected snail, after all Why would you eat it?

Turns out the tre host They&039;re polite guests, living quietly in the bird&039;s gut, notThe bird hardly knows they&039;re there, just craps them out into the next pond over, like a little parasite bomb

It&039;s almost like the bird and the treive us a ride in your stoe some half-blind snails for you to eat

Isn&039;t cooperation a beautiful thing?

Unless, of course, you happen to be the snail