Category: Invertebrates
“Snail” is a common name applied to most members of the class “Gastropoda” that have a coiled shell that is big enough for the animal to recoil into completely – this can include a vast number (thousands) of species of land snails, freshwater snails, and marine snails. Snail-like creatures that lack a shell or have only a small shell that they cannot retract into are known as slugs and semi-slugs, respectively. Although land snails are the most familiar to most people, marine snails constitute the majority of snail species and display much greater diversity. Slugs and snails, with their appetite for tender greens, can be agricultural pests, but some snail species are a highly valued food source and are farmed as a nutritious and even gourmet food source.
Body horror in the insect kingdom
Learning about animals, you can discover many fascinating, even beautiful facts, but there are also things that can give you nightmares! Enter the strepsiptera (“twisted-wing parasite”). The adult female has no limbs, wings, or mouth - she simply lives in and feeds off her host (typically a wasp). When it becomes time to mate, she protrudes part of her abdomen from between the plates of her host and uses mind control to get the wasp to fly off to nearby males. Sexually mature males have wings, and fly around for about five hours before dying - spending their entire short existence seeking out females to mate with. After the female is impregnated, her own young grow and consume her. And once there is nothing left to eat, they leave their host wasp, infiltrate the nursery, and latch on to a larvae to create their own “zombie wasp” host and continue the grisly cycle!
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