Five years ago , I wroteThe Invasion of the Zombie Animalsand7 More Zombie Animals . Those two lists cover the best - known lawsuit of parasitic creatures that take over the minds and consistency of other animals for their own selfish oddment . But there are many more such parasites that do exactly the same thing . They give us nightmares and feature films , but life is even worse for their victim .
1. Zombie Fish Has a Hot Flash
snap by Solveig Schjorring .
The snort tapewormSchistocephalus solidususes three hosts in its life cycle . Its eggs are position in a bird ’s digestive system . When the eggs reach the water supply in bird droppings , they brood into larvae , which are wipe out by copepod crustacean , a case of crustacean . The copepods are eaten by stickleback fish . This is where the cestode want to grow large . Through some chemical mechanism , the cestode change the Pisces the Fishes ’s behaviour . The fish no longer stays with its school day , but swims to the warm water prefer by a growing tapeworm . Leaving the other fish also make the prickleback more potential to be eaten by a seabird , which is where a matured cestode wants to be for lay its eggs . And the Hz can start all over again .
2. Zombie Honeybees Head Toward the Light
Photograph byCore A , Runckel C , Ivers J , Quock C , Siapno T , et al .
Apocephalus borealisis a rainfly that repose its testicle in humblebee , buthas been observed to expend honeybees as a legion more late . This makes it a suspect in the widespread Colony Collapse Disorder . The fly put its orchis in the bee ’s body , and the septic bee stop working and give up the dependency . Its demeanor becomes more like a moth in that it tends to move toward lights , fuddle off its piloting . However , while a moth vanish around a light , septic honeybee will flounder and fall down . The bee eventually dies when the fly larvae collapse out from behind its psyche .
3. Zombie Caterpillars “Plant” Themselves
Photograph byL. Shyamal .
Ophiocordyceps sinensisis a parasitic fungus that is in reality classified as an scupper coinage . It lives in dirt , but eventually reproduces with the service of a trace moth cat . The infected caterpillar will “ found ” itself in soil , with its head repoint toward the surface . The fungus grows over winter , digesting the cat from the interior . In the spring , a fruit body will explode through the cat ’s forefront and “ sprout ” above the soil . Often the “ stalk ” of fungus will be bigger than the caterpillar itself .
The fungus raise only in Tibet and the Himalayas , where the dead septic worms are collect and sold for medicative use under the name yartsa gunbu . It ’s not easy to glean , buta Irish pound of it can bring $ 50,000 . Overharvesting led tothe endangered compartmentalization .
4. Zombie Spiders Become Tailors
photograph byStanislav Korenko and Stano Pekár .
Czech scientist Stanislav Korenko and Stano Pekárdescribe the effects of a bloodsucking wasp , Zatypota percontatoria , on the spiderNeottiura bimaculata . The tiny wasp will inject an nut into the venter of the wanderer . The egg hatch and feeds on the spider . The zombie mind - control only takes place when the larva is almost fledged : that ’s when the spider stops its normal web - spinning pattern ( B in the above picture ) and set out spinninga different form of web(A ) -one that is a arrant place for a wasp cocoon , with a platform to keep it off the ground and a thug to shield it from the atmospheric condition . When the “ customized ” web is ready , the larva fusillade from the spider , killing it , and whirl its own cocoon in the web ( vitamin C and D ) .
Another mintage ofspider impact this wayisAnelosimus octavius , which is a “ tangle web wanderer . ” It produces a rather unstylish World Wide Web until infected by a wasp of the genusZatypota . Then it is directed to ramp up an elaborated tent for the parasitic white Anglo-Saxon Protestant ’s cocoons . See theaffected webs here .
Yet a third pairing of spiders and wasp parasite was cover inthe second list in this serial .
5. Zombie Crickets Shoot Blanks
shoot by Flickr userTom Phillips .
The computer virus IIV-6 / CrIV isa sexually - transmit disease that dissemble cricket . But this computer virus has a trick up its sleeve- it affect the demeanor of crickets for its own goal . A cricket infected with IIV-6 / CrIV will become more sexually active than a non - infected cricket , which ease the spread of the computer virus from one host to another . The crickets , however , become uninspired , both manlike and distaff , which means they will proceed to mate until they give out . The virus does not make the crickets feel nauseated , though , because that would be counterproductive to sexual body process . If an STD could be thought of as sentient , this one would be a genius .
6. The Zombie Drug-addict Ant Slaves
snap by Alexander L. Wild .
The Central American acacia tree and the antPseudomyrmex ferrugineuslive in a symbiotic relationship . The tree provides sweet nectar for the pismire , and the ants protect the tree from weeds and animals . But we now know thatthe relationship is rather one - sided , as the tree diagram not only causes the pismire to become addicted to its nectar , but also damages the ants to make them ineffective to digest any other food ! Martin Heil of Cinvestav Unidad Irapuato in Mexico study the ants , and found that they are born with the power to condense a miscellanea of sugars , but then lose their invertase , an enzyme that breaks down sugars . The disabled ants can then only survive on the partially - digested sugar of acacia nectar .
That ’s kind of like a nefarious babe food company that pop the question to make up for your rotten teeth to be pulled instead of repaired . Like I ’ve always say , never trust a tree hold natural endowment .
7. Brainless Zombie Ants Carry On and Bury Themselves
Photograph by S.D. Porter , USDA - ARS .
Pseudacteon litoralisis a leechlike tent flap thatvictimizes fire ants in South America . The female fly lays an egg in the ant ’s consistency with an ovipositor that resemble a hypodermic needle . The egg brood inside the ant , and then the larva works its way to the ant ’s brain , which it eats . The remainder of the colony does n’t even acknowledge that the septic antno longer has a genius , because the fly larva induce the pismire to keep on working and behaving as always ! That is , until the larva matures into a pupa . Then it causes the pismire to go off by itself and snuggle down in a bed of forest litter , very un - antlike , for the orgasm of the account . That ’s when the mature fly pops off the ant ’s empty head and emerges from the dead consistence to flee off and multiply .
8. The Meta Parasite
shoot byAndy Potter .
Just because a wasp is a parasite that feeds off other worm does n’t intend it has no natural predators . They can become victims themselves!Parasites that feed on other parasite are hollo “ hyperparasitoids . ”Ed Yong says , “ It ’s like a hybridization between the filmsAlienandInception . ” This story demand not only a caterpillar and two ( or more ) parasites , but also a wampum that communicates .
When a boodle begins to be rust by a caterpillar , it give out a chemical signal , like an consternation . The scent of the chemical process the parasitic waspsCotesia rubeculaand / orCotesia glomerata , which taint the cat with their eggs . This gain the cabbage in the retentive runnel by controlling the cabbage - corrode caterpillars . But the chemical substance also draw in the waspLysibia nana , which lays its eggs in theCotesiagrub that is already feeding off the still - live cat ! Now , theL. nanawasp can tell whichCotesiaspecies is inside the caterpillar , because the grub changes the chemical makeup of its host ’s saliva , andL. nanacan sense the difference . It prefers a caterpillar infected withC. glomerata . One conjecture is thatC. rubeculahas acquire to modify the caterpillar ’s saliva more subtly for the purpose of hiding from the thehyperparasitoidL. nana .
But of course , theL. nanawasp is vulnerable to yet other meta - parasite . None are safe .
See also : The Invasion of the Zombie Animalsand7 More Zombie Animals .
