Leucochloridium variae information

Leucochloridium variae
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Platyhelminthes
Class:	Trematoda
Order:	Diplostomida
Family:	Leucochloridiidae
Genus:	Leucochloridium
Species:	L. variae
Binomial name
Leucochloridium variae McIntosh, 1932[1]

Leucochloridium variae, the brown-banded broodsac, is a species of trematode whose life cycle involves the alternate parasitic infection of certain species of snail and bird. While there is no external evidence of the worm's existence within the bird host, the infection of the snail host is visible when its eye stalks become grotesquely engorged with the parasite's brood sacs. These brood sacks pulsate and move to imitate insect larva, attracting the parasite's next host, insectivore birds. The bird rips off the eye stalk and eats it, thus becoming infected. Later on, the parasite's eggs are dropped with the bird's feces. Similar life-histories are found in other species of the genus Leucochloridium, including Leucochloridium paradoxum.

This process does not necessarily kill the snail. They can regenerate their eye stalks, and snails may become infective multiple times in their lifespan.