And now we take a break from the depressing ...
... to move on to the creepy!
Parasitic Hairworm Charms Grasshopper Into Taking It for a SwimOnly in science fiction do people's minds get possessed by alien beings. For grasshoppers, zombification is an everyday hazard, and it obliges them to end their lives in a bizarre manner.
Biologists have discovered and hope to decipher a deadly cross talk between the genomes of a grasshopper and a parasitic worm that infects it.
The interaction occurs as the worm induces the grasshopper to seek out a large body of water and then leap into it.
The parasite, known as a hairworm, lives and breeds in fresh water. But it spends the early part of its life cycle eating away the innards of the grasshoppers and crickets it infects.
When it is fully grown, it faces a difficult problem, that of returning to water. So it has evolved a clever way of influencing its host to deliver just one further service - the stricken grasshopper looks for water and dives in.
The article has more details, and even better: it has pictures, oh yes it does.
Timothy, on Tuesday, September 6, 2005 at 7:08 PM:
I think I need to go wash my hair 3 or 4 times ....ok ...I'm creeped out
Sarah, on Friday, September 9, 2005 at 10:43 AM:
Amber snails are sometimes infected with a flat worm, Leucochloridium paradoxum, that causes their eye stalks to take on gargantuan proportions, and throb with psychedelic, lateral-moving stripes. This causes birds to think that the eye stalk is actually a juicey grub, which they then rip off and eat. The flatworm "carcaries", which caused the throbbing, are then dispersed in the birds' droppings. Did I mention that amber snails think bird droppings are quite the delicacy?
And so, the circle of life continues...
Biology is so cool.