Fact Friday

Loxothylacus (Loxo for short), a parasitic barnacle, makes male mud crabs think they are female! The barnacle invades a crab that has recently molted. She forms reproductive sacs where the crab’s own eggs would be located. The crab is then manipulated into caring for the barnacle babies like they were its own. Learn more: http://sercblog.si.edu/?p=2585

Image Attribution: Undersea Parasite Impregnates Crabs, Male and Female. (2012, September 5). Retrieved November 19, 2015, from http://sercblog.si.edu/?p=2585

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Banded Sea Snake

September 2, 2022

Banded Sea Krait

Do you know that the banded sea krait contains a neurotoxin in its venom that’s one of the most lethal in the world? Sea snakes spend most of their time in the water. Sea kraits are not true sea snakes because they spend a lot of time on land digesting food and nesting. Sea kraits differ from their cousins on land because they have a paddle-like tail used for swimming. They hunt eels and other small fish that live in the coral reef, easily fitting into the reef’s crevices. They use their deadly neurotoxin to paralyze their victims before swallowing them whole.

Photo Credit: Ken Marks