Wow!
Mind-Controlling Parasites
It might sound like something out of sci-fi, but plenty of parasites can control the minds of caterpillars, roaches, crabs, and maybe even us. In many cases, scientists don't know exactly how these creatures achieve mind control.
This spider, Plesiometa argyra, is an expert builder of perfectly round webs. But with one sting, a parasitic wasp can take over its mind.
The wasp deposits its larvae inside the spider's body, along with a new blueprint—instead of building its web, the spider spends the last night of its life constructing a silk cocoon, which becomes a home for its killers.
When the silk sack is done, the larvae kill the spider. Then they take up residence in the cocoon, suspended safely above the predators of the rainforest floor.
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Suicidal Pillbug
Turn over a piece of wood in your yard and you might find pill bugs on the bottom, hiding from birds who consider them a tasty treat.
Parasitic spiny-headed worms that live in pill bugs, however, need the birds to find them: While the worms grow up inside their pill bug hosts, they can't reproduce there. Instead, they need to be in the belly of a starling.
To achieve this goal, the worm gets control of the bug's brain and makes it crawl out into the open. When a bird gulps down the pill bug, the parasite can move through another step of its life cycle.
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Zombie Cockroach
If you never thought you'd feel bad for cockroaches, consider this: The green jewel wasp can perform brain surgery on a cockroach, turning it into a living zombie.
The tropical wasp injects venom that blocks octopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with alertness and movement. Once the roach is its slave, the wasp plants its own larvae inside the roach's body, and the larvae eat the roach from the inside out.
So why go to all the trouble of mind control? It's a matter of timing: The wasp larvae need a week to mature, and the adult's wasp venom keeps the zombie cockroach helpless but alive for that period.
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Caterpillar Bodyguard
A parasitic wasp called Glyptapanteles employs the same cruel strategy as the jewel wasp, but it plants its larvae inside a caterpillar rather than a cockroach.
This case, however, has another bizarre twist—the wasp larvae make the caterpillar their bodyguard. As the larvae emerge from the caterpillar and attach themselves to a nearby plant, the caterpillar watches over the larvae and attacks anything that tries to get near them.
Scientists studying this arrangement have found that one or two larvae stay behind in the caterpillar. It's possible that the stragglers secrete some kind of chemical to control the mind of the poor caterpillar, which is already partially eaten.
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Light-Up Snail
A snail's antennae are not usually decorated in colored, pulsating ribbons. So when one is possessed by a distome named Leucochloridium paradoxum, it's not hard to tell.
Like the nematode in ants, the parasite is just trying to get attention. And its light show gets plenty of it.
Birds that see the snail's pulsating antennae swoop down and bite them off, only to contract the parasite themselves. The distome's eggs pass out of the bird through its droppings, which get back into the snail when it eats them, and the cycle continues.
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Possessed by a Barnacle
That orange blob you see is Sacculina carcini, one of the bossiest barnacles around.
A female Sacculina begins life adrift in the sea, but when the parasite picks up a crab's scent, it sneaks inside the crab's shell and makes itself at home. Once attached, the barnacle sends root-like tendrils all throughout the crab's body.
Those tendrils allow the parasite to draw nutrients from the crab—and take over its mind. From then on, the crab lives only to serve its master—it no longer molts, mates, or re-grows broken appendages, because those activities would take energy away from the barnacle. And when the parasite is ready to reproduce, the crab—even a male one—will care for the barnacle larvae as its own.
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Controlling the Smartest Brain of All
Humans might not be exempt from the mind control of parasites, either. Half of us, scientists say, carry the parasitic protozoa Toxoplasma gondii. And once we have toxoplasma in our bodies, we carry it for life.
The rate of infection can vary wildly from country to country—only three percent of South Koreans have are infected by toxoplasma, while as many as 80 percent of French people are carriers. The Centers for Disease Control says that areas where people prefer undercooked meat, like France, or have stray cats running around, like Central America, are rife for infection.
Though the parasite's main host is the cat, it can live in thousands of warm-blooded species (and we're on the list). Toxoplasmosis, researchers have found, might make people more likely to be schizophrenic, and can change personality in subtle ways. One researcher found that infected men were more aggressive and jealous, women were more outgoing, and perhaps most seriously, both had slower reaction times and were in more traffic accidents.
http://discovermagazine.com/photos/0...t-control-them
It might sound like something out of sci-fi, but plenty of parasites can control the minds of caterpillars, roaches, crabs, and maybe even us. In many cases, scientists don't know exactly how these creatures achieve mind control.
This spider, Plesiometa argyra, is an expert builder of perfectly round webs. But with one sting, a parasitic wasp can take over its mind.
The wasp deposits its larvae inside the spider's body, along with a new blueprint—instead of building its web, the spider spends the last night of its life constructing a silk cocoon, which becomes a home for its killers.
When the silk sack is done, the larvae kill the spider. Then they take up residence in the cocoon, suspended safely above the predators of the rainforest floor.
---
Suicidal Pillbug
Turn over a piece of wood in your yard and you might find pill bugs on the bottom, hiding from birds who consider them a tasty treat.
Parasitic spiny-headed worms that live in pill bugs, however, need the birds to find them: While the worms grow up inside their pill bug hosts, they can't reproduce there. Instead, they need to be in the belly of a starling.
To achieve this goal, the worm gets control of the bug's brain and makes it crawl out into the open. When a bird gulps down the pill bug, the parasite can move through another step of its life cycle.
---
Zombie Cockroach
If you never thought you'd feel bad for cockroaches, consider this: The green jewel wasp can perform brain surgery on a cockroach, turning it into a living zombie.
The tropical wasp injects venom that blocks octopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with alertness and movement. Once the roach is its slave, the wasp plants its own larvae inside the roach's body, and the larvae eat the roach from the inside out.
So why go to all the trouble of mind control? It's a matter of timing: The wasp larvae need a week to mature, and the adult's wasp venom keeps the zombie cockroach helpless but alive for that period.
---
Caterpillar Bodyguard
A parasitic wasp called Glyptapanteles employs the same cruel strategy as the jewel wasp, but it plants its larvae inside a caterpillar rather than a cockroach.
This case, however, has another bizarre twist—the wasp larvae make the caterpillar their bodyguard. As the larvae emerge from the caterpillar and attach themselves to a nearby plant, the caterpillar watches over the larvae and attacks anything that tries to get near them.
Scientists studying this arrangement have found that one or two larvae stay behind in the caterpillar. It's possible that the stragglers secrete some kind of chemical to control the mind of the poor caterpillar, which is already partially eaten.
---
Light-Up Snail
A snail's antennae are not usually decorated in colored, pulsating ribbons. So when one is possessed by a distome named Leucochloridium paradoxum, it's not hard to tell.
Like the nematode in ants, the parasite is just trying to get attention. And its light show gets plenty of it.
Birds that see the snail's pulsating antennae swoop down and bite them off, only to contract the parasite themselves. The distome's eggs pass out of the bird through its droppings, which get back into the snail when it eats them, and the cycle continues.
---
Possessed by a Barnacle
That orange blob you see is Sacculina carcini, one of the bossiest barnacles around.
A female Sacculina begins life adrift in the sea, but when the parasite picks up a crab's scent, it sneaks inside the crab's shell and makes itself at home. Once attached, the barnacle sends root-like tendrils all throughout the crab's body.
Those tendrils allow the parasite to draw nutrients from the crab—and take over its mind. From then on, the crab lives only to serve its master—it no longer molts, mates, or re-grows broken appendages, because those activities would take energy away from the barnacle. And when the parasite is ready to reproduce, the crab—even a male one—will care for the barnacle larvae as its own.
---
Controlling the Smartest Brain of All
Humans might not be exempt from the mind control of parasites, either. Half of us, scientists say, carry the parasitic protozoa Toxoplasma gondii. And once we have toxoplasma in our bodies, we carry it for life.
The rate of infection can vary wildly from country to country—only three percent of South Koreans have are infected by toxoplasma, while as many as 80 percent of French people are carriers. The Centers for Disease Control says that areas where people prefer undercooked meat, like France, or have stray cats running around, like Central America, are rife for infection.
Though the parasite's main host is the cat, it can live in thousands of warm-blooded species (and we're on the list). Toxoplasmosis, researchers have found, might make people more likely to be schizophrenic, and can change personality in subtle ways. One researcher found that infected men were more aggressive and jealous, women were more outgoing, and perhaps most seriously, both had slower reaction times and were in more traffic accidents.
http://discovermagazine.com/photos/0...t-control-them
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