Green Banded Broodsac
Leucochloridium paradoxum
Life Cycle-noun, the process of how an organism reproduces
The Parasite's Cycle
The life cycle of the Green Banded Broodsac starts as an egg living in bird excretion. Once the snail consumes the eggs, they live inside the snail’s digestive system, where they hatch into miracidia, clear and elongated larvae. Then sporocysts, the colorful, sac-like part seen inside the eyestalks form from hundreds of cercaria, juveniles that come off the sporocysts. At this point, the sporocysts are consumed by a bird and the cercaria mature into adults, which are spined, long, and dorsally flattened. Finally, the adults reproduce both sexually and asexually and release their eggs into the rectum of the bird, where they are excreted and the cycle begins again. There are theories that the relationship only formed to extend the life of the parasite, which are probably true. None of the organisms in this relationship are harmed, and even after the snail’s eyestalks are eaten, they grow back to accommodate more sporocysts.
The only stage of the life cycle outside of the hosts are the eggs, but they still need to be somewhere warm and moist.