Getting something stuck in your head- literally

Ever heard of the earwig syndrome? According to urbandictionary.com, an earwig is a “ridiculously catchy song that gets stuck in your head, whether you like it or not.” Imagine getting Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face” song stuck in your head for a day and you’ll see (hear) how painful an earwig can be.

But, um, recently I discovered earwigs really aren't that bad.

Imagine getting something stuck in your head... that eventually starts controlling your behavior, sucks you dry of nutrients, kills you and then bursts out of your dead body to spread its spores. I came across a fungus named Cordyceps that does just that- to insects. It’s an endoparasitoid, which is a fancy way of saying it gets inside of you and does really nasty stuff. One of my favorite authors/bloggers, Carl Zimmer, wrote about the fungus in detail at his blog, The Loom.

So to illustrate what happens to an insect infected with Cordyceps, allow me to introduce you to a little ant named Fred. Fred is scurrying happily on the jungle floor one day, eager to meet up with his ant friends when spores from this fungus penetrate his exoskeleton. These spores then work their way into Fred’s wee little body, where the fungus begins to grow. Instead of hanging out and partying with the rest of his ant homies, he climbs up a plant to a very specific point and hangs on tight (with his jaws). Stuff happens, Fred dies and then Cordyceps grows a long stalk that pops out of the now dead!Fred’s body. It then tries to infect dead!Fred’s insect friends below him by "showering" spores down on them.

 Check out the video below. If David Attenborough narrates something about it, then it must be true. And cool.

 Seriously though, how creeptastic is that?

I was going to tie Cordyceps with viral marketing because really, isn’t the goal of going “viral” to “infect” people and change their behavior (*cough* just like this fungus *cough*). But that would have been too obvious, don’t you think? I was going to wax poetic about the parallels of parasites and viral campaigns, lessons PR people can learn from the animal kingdom and deep thoughts by Jack Handy but you know what? No.

I wanted to tell the world about this fungus because it was damn cool.

And with that, I hope everyone has a great weekend!

(Credit to Youtube for the video and to Carl Zimmer for his article and for being a bad ass)

Comments

[Andrew]

For some reason I'm not fondly remembering the crmini mushrooms I had for dinner last night. Thanks, Kristin!

[Christy]

The only word that comes to mind after I read this is WOW! This is CLASSIC, KFont! Please keep me posted on how this spreads. :D