Cute little parasites...

Some of you may be wondering what this parasite I've been studying is. Well here's a picture of the cercariae (a free-swimming life stage in the life cycle). Isn't it cute?

As viewed through a light microscope at 400x magnification.

I didn't find any evidence for direct modification of the host snail's behavior by the parasite. But I did find that those snails with the parasite did not have broods (small, developing snails that are inside the snail until they develop and are released), and that those snails without broods moved significantly more slowly than those with broods. This is interesting because it shows that behavior modification can be more complicated with such indirect effects.