Snails infected with the endoparasitic worm Leucochloridium paradoxum go through a pretty horrifying physical transformation in addition to being driven to what looks like suicidal behavior. (Related: “ The Guinea Worm-A Fond Obituary.”) Leucochloridium paradoxum It’s a nightmare of pain on its way out, but the good news is the worm is really on its way out: International efforts are moving the guinea worm ever closer to extinction. Though it doesn’t make us drown ourselves, it does make us seek water to relieve the burning sensation caused when the parasites try to exit out of our feet. The guinea worm has a similar strategy, but it infects people rather than grasshoppers. The worms, now up to four times as long as their host, go out and mate, leaving the grasshopper to drown. The French researchers concluded that the hairworms release a protein that acts on the insect’s central nervous system, causing it to go to the water, which is where hairworms reproduce. Hairworm larvae, possibly ingested by grasshoppers in the water they drink, grow to occupy the grasshopper’s body-the entire thing, except the head and legs. In 2005 a team of French biologists studied how the hairworm manipulates its host by studying a group of grasshoppers trapped in a pool. Also called the horsehair worm or the Gordian worm because they sometimes mass and look like a knot (i.e., Gordian knot), these critters can also infect crickets and other bugs. The parasitic hairworm, Nematomorpha, that’s who. Who would make these bugs want to kill themselves? Remember catching grasshoppers as a kid? Happy summers, good memories. ![]() (See more pictures of animal “zombies.”) Parasitic Hairworm If you’re about to stop reading because you’re neurotic about this stuff … oh, forget it. One study, however, linked the infection to certain human traits, including neuroticism. That’s a phrase that may haunt your dreams, but it’s only really dangerous for newly infected pregnant women and those with compromised immune systems. Recent research has shown that even after the mice have cleared the infection from their bodies, they don’t recover their healthy fear response to cat urine, suggesting that the alterations in their brains are permanent.Ībout one-third of humans are infected with T. That means the rodents become easy pickin’s for the cat, and the parasite gets a ride back home. (See “How a Cat-Borne Parasite Infects Humans.”) So how does it get there? Well, one way is that mice infected with T. Our first puppet master is a parasite called Toxoplasma gondii, and it likes to reproduce in the intestinal tract of domestic cats. (See pictures of eerie animals ready for Halloween.) Toxoplasma gondii Here’s a look at some of these masterful puppeteers. Their methods are insidious enough to make James Wan and Stephen King run away screaming like Ned Flanders. Several parasite species invade their victims’ bodies, turning them into zombies that do their masters’ bidding. With Halloween coming up, we thought we’d take a look at nature’s real-life zombies-and how they get that way.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |