A Bug's Life

It really must suck to be an ant. First off, you're an ant. Pretty much everything wants to eat you...or kill you just for existing. Then, you have members of lesser kingdoms trying to take over your body. Harrowing.

Por ejemplo, take cordyceps. It's a fungus! Completely incapable of higher thought. And yet, it can infect the brain of an ant and basically take over its body for its own purposes.


FYI- cordyceps can also infect all kinds of other insects including katydids and caterpillars. I wonder if a human inhaled enough of the spores whether that would have any significant effect on our central nervous system. (Probably not...but if there were enough evolutionary pressure to find a new environment?....hint hint save the rain forests so the bugs can continue to appease the fungus.)

Case 2: A newly discovered nematode causes the abdomen of infected ants to turn red. Why? So they'll look like fruit and become easier for predators to spot, consume, and consequently spread the parasite all over the place.
How creepy is this?!? I'm really not cool with these lower organisms evolving such elegant solutions for the furthering of their species.

It's too bad we haven't come up with anything that impressive to combat the oil crisis, obesity epidemic, or global warming. Hell, we need some kind of parasite to convince half the population these problems even exist.

It's probably easier being an ant.