no, it keeps the snail alive for as long as possible - the parasite colony converts the snail into a parasite larvae factory basically
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Replying to @The_Episiarch @o_guest
so the longer the snail stays alive, the more larvae produced by the parasite colony
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Replying to @The_Episiarch
OMG horrific! OK, so when the parasite leaves the snail the snail remains alive even though it bursts (?) through the host?
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Replying to @o_guest
well, no the parasite doesn't leave the snail as such, usually with flukes, when it infects a snail it asexually multiples, basically clones
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Replying to @The_Episiarch @o_guest
itself producing stages call parthenitae. The role of the parthenitae is to use the snail's nutrients to produce the next stage in the
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Replying to @The_Episiarch @o_guest
the life-cycle called "cercariae" - *those* stages leave the snail, but the parthenitae stay and keeps on pumping out more cercariae
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Replying to @The_Episiarch @o_guest
that Leucochloridium is unusual because instead of having individual microscopic cercariae that leaves the snail, some of those parthenitae
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Replying to @The_Episiarch
So the stage that leaves the snail still doesn't kill the snail? [Thanks for explaining BTW.]
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Replying to @o_guest
yep - it might hurt the snail, but not enough to kill it. Usually other flukes don't have those big broodsacs coming out of them tho
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Replying to @The_Episiarch @o_guest
they usually come out in the form of dozens or hundreds of microscopic tadpole-shaped larvae that leave through the respiratory pore
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Replying to @o_guest
I drew this diagram many years ago to illustrate the typical life-cycle of parasitic flukeshttps://the-episiarch.deviantart.com/art/Digenean-trematode-life-cycle-197095162 …
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