#4917 · 🪼 jellyfish, starfish, worms & co
Oogsteelslakkenworm
Leucochloridium paradoxum
7 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences
what is it?
The green-banded broodsac , scientific name Leucochloridium paradoxum , is a parasitic flatworm (or "helminth") that uses gastropods as an intermediate host. It is typically found in land snails of the genus Succinea that live in Europe and North America where it infects the host’s eyes making them appear as caterpillars that other birds prey on. Various birds consume these infected gastropods, becoming the definitive host for L. paradoxum to mature and release eggs in the rectum that...
base stats
Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).
fun facts
- Spotted 12 times in the Netherlands on iNaturalist.
- 482 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
- Scientifically named by Carl Gustav Carus in 1835 (191 years ago).
fact sheet
- Nederlands
- Oogsteelslakkenworm
- scientific name
- Leucochloridium paradoxum
- class
- Trematoda
- order
- Diplostomida
- family
- Leucochloridiidae
- sightings in NL
- 12
- sightings in Europe
- 319
- sightings worldwide
- 482
- GBIF records in NL
- 218
- weight
- —
- length
- —
- lifespan
- —
- named
- 1835 by Carl Gustav Carus
Sources: iNaturalist taxon 123944, Wikidata Q138713, GBIF 4414629, Wikipedia (EN), Wikipedia (NL). Intro text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.