He Who Controls the Parasitic Fungus Controls the World!
The Nepalese army and the country’s rampant Maoist rebels are vying for control of the multi-million-pound trade in an exotic traditional medicine known as the Himalayan Viagra. Prized for its reputed powers as an aphrodisiac and panacea, the medicine is made from a creature known to locals as yarchagumba, a caterpillar with a parasitical mushroom that grows from its head and will ultimately kill it.
a.k.a. cordyceps
I’m reminded of the Megaloponera foetens.
On occasion one of these ants, while looking for food is infected by inhaling a microscopic spore from a fungus of the genus Tomentella. After being inhaled, the spore seats in the ant’s tiny brain and begins to grow, causing changes in the ant’s patterns of behavior. The Ant appears troubled and confused; for the first time in its life the ant leaves the forest floor and begins to climb.
Driven on by the growth of the fungus, the ant embarks on a long and exhaustive climb. Completely spent and having reached a prescribed height, the ant impales the plant with its mandibles. Thus affixed, the ant waits to die. Ants that have met their ends in this fashion are quite common in some sections of the forest.
The fungus continues to consume first the nerve cells and finally all the soft tissue that remains of the ant. After approximately two weeks a spike appears from what had been the head of the ant. This spike is about an inch and a half in length and has a bright orange tip heavy with spores which rain down onto the rain forest floor for other unsuspecting ants to inhale.
N.B. If you go looking for the Megaloponera foetens, you’ll find that the information all seems to trace back to a single source, the Museum of Jurassic Technology.
(First link via Discordian Research Technology News)
Visiting the museum of Jurrasic technology was one of the high points of my recent sabbatical leave in Los Angeles. Highly recommended to anyone who is visiting LA.
Posted by Brian Borchers on August 24 2004 22:19
The specifics of the Megalopotera foetens are probably be an invention of the Museum of Jurassic Technology. However, the described mode of parasitic infection has many real examples. For some more information, log into Amazon.com and search the contents of the book _Parasites in Social Insects_ by Paul Schmid-Hempel. Here's an excerpt describing the liver fluke:
"By some as yet unknown mechanism, the brain worm seems to manipulate the worker ant's behavior so that she climbs grasses and fastens herself there with mandibles. In this way, the ant is more vulnerable to a predator i.e. the next host of the parasite. It is striking how closely this phenomenon resembles the one observed in ants infected by fungi, as illustrated earlier. In both cases, the parasite establishes itself in the vicinity of presumably critical neural tissue of the host. This indicates that seeking the neighborhood for specific host nerve cells is probably a general, active, and adaptive process by which the parasite can attain control over its host's behavior."
Posted by Ted on August 25 2004 11:51