The strange multicolored snail turned viral is actually a zombie

"I leave this snail nicer than reading so much racism on Twitter," wrote Oxlack Investigator in his profile on social networks. The video broke it. It was a particular mollusc with colors and psychedelic movements.

The problem? I was in "zombie mode", controlled by a parasite This would lead to his death. This is not a chapter of The walking Deadbut a real case of nature.

In this case, the snail is infected with a parasite called Leucochloridium Paradoxum. It's a worm larva that uses snails as a host and takes its brain, so that it controls everything they do. Strange colors and movements have a sad purpose: attract the attention of the birds to eat.

With this "suicide", the parasite enters the digestive tract of birds to lay eggs that will be thrown by the feces of birds to infect new snails. The circle of life, in zombie version.

The strange colors that we see on the images come from the parasite: the skin of the host is actually transparent.