If there is ever a contest for Least Appreciated Creature on Earth, first prize should go to a microbe called Wolbachia.
The bacterium infects millions of invertebrate species, including spiders, shrimps and parasitic worms, as well as 60 percent of all insect species. Once in residence, Wolbachia co-opts its hosts’ reproductive machinery and often greedily shields them from a variety of competing infections.
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