PARASITES: Sacculina Magnet

Genus Sacculina are parasitic barnacles who invade the bodies of crabs, their fellow crustaceans. The female Sacculina injects a few of her cells into the crab's body and grows like a cancer, eventually developing a sac-like growth on the crab's underside. The crab is tricked into nurturing the parasite and its young like it would its own eggs, and if the crab was a male, Sacculina will alter its body chemistry to behave like a mother.