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If you want to catch Mother Nature at her best (and if by best you mean bizarre or darned scary), then look no further than how parasites hijack the biology of their hosts.
Take, for instance, the pseudacteon:
Though related to the harmless fruit flies breeding in the world’s neglected fruit bowls, Pseudacteon flies have a far more sinister appetite. The female lays her egg in the body of a living ant, and the tiny maggot will eventually move into the ant’s head to devour its brain. This won’t kill the victim, but will cause the ant’s (technically dead) body to wander aimlessly for days on end, until the ant’s head simply drops off from its body. The maggot will use the severed head as a pupation chamber, transforming into a new fly and finding itself a mate.
Gruesome, eh? Here are 9 more zombie parasites over at TopTenz: Link
Kitteh. They sure are cute and all, but are they secretly trying to drive us all mad? That’s the premise of a new research by John Hopkins researchers:
Johns Hopkins University scientists trying to determine why people develop serious mental illness are focusing on an unlikely factor: a common parasite spread by cats.
The researchers say the microbes, called Toxoplasma gondii, invade the human brain and appear to upset its chemistry — creating, in some people, the psychotic behaviors recognized as schizophrenia. [...]
Evidence that T. gondii infections may be a cause of schizophrenia, while not yet conclusive, is growing, Yolken said. A review of past studies, published last year by Yolken and Torrey, collected a variety of intriguing correlations. For example: People with schizophrenia have a higher prevalence of T. gondii antibodies in their blood. There are unusually low rates of schizophrenia and toxoplasmosis in countries where cats are rare, and unusually high rates in places where eating uncooked meat is customary. And some adults with toxoplasmosis show psychotic symptoms similar to schizophrenia.
Studies have linked a history of toxoplasmosis with increased rates of other mental changes, too, including bipolar disorders and depression. A 2002 study in the Czech Republic noted slowed reflexes in Toxoplasma-positive people and found links between the infection and increased rates of auto accidents.
A University of Maryland study last year found that people with mood disorders who attempt suicide had higher levels of T. gondii antibodies than those who don’t try to take their own lives. Still, the links between schizophrenia and toxoplasmosis are not simple. For example, most people infected with T. gondii never become schizophrenic. And not all schizophrenics have been exposed to toxoplasma.
Yolken believes additional factors, such as an unlucky combination of genes, are probably needed to produce schizophrenia among Toxoplasma-infected people. The parasite’s DNA may also be important, since some strains are known to cause more disease.
Frank D. Roylance of The Baltimore Sun has the story: Link
Photo: Donald Bradley/Kansas City Star
Are Democrats a party of parasites who give handouts to people who don’t work, by taxing those who do? That’s what farmer Donald Jungerman claimed when he put up a trailer along a freeway in Missouri with the words:
Are you a Producer or Parasite
Democrats – Party of Parasites
Well, it turns out that Jungerman himself got government handouts, to the tune of over $1 million!
After a story about Jungerman’s trailer ran in Sunday’s Star, however, some readers called him a hypocrite for criticizing others for getting government help while taking government subsidies paid for by taxpayers.
Jungerman said he put up the sign to protest people who pay no taxes, but, “Always have their hand out for whatever the government will give them” in social programs.
Crop subsidies are different, he said. When crop prices dip below a certain point, the federal government makes up the difference with a subsidy payment.
Donald Bradley of the Kansas City Star has the story of the classic "in my case, it’s completely different" defense: Link
Every week, Christie Lynn of Observation of a Nerd blog features a post about a hair raising parasite worthy of a science fiction (or perhaps better yet, horror) movie.
This particular one is about a caterpillar being eaten from inside after being infected with a parasitic wasp; make sure to see all of the other entries. And a little warning: it’s not for the faint of heart.
Cotesia glomerata, like many other parasitic wasps, targets caterpillars to host its hungry little wasps-to-be. When it finds a suitable host, it injects its eggs directly into the body cavity of the unfortunate butterfly larvae by stabbing its egg-laying, needle-like appendage called an “ovipositor” directly through the catterpillar’s skin. Inside the host, the eggs hatch and begin feeding on the inner organs to become fully grown.
From the Upcoming 
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Humans! is a short animation by Reza Rasoli, Greg Gunn and Casey Hunt of Three Legged Legs. It’s done in the style of a PSA – and while you may not agree with the gloom and doom depiction of humans as parasites, it’s still a very interesting (though a bit gory) animation.
Hit play or go to Link [aniboom] – via Cool Infographics
