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On YouTube, there's a video of a parasitic cordyceps fungus killing an ant. And 'killing' is probably too nice a word for what it does. Devouring, perhaps; destroying, certainly. Annihilation about describes it. It's probably worksafe, but if you're averse to seeing an insect die horribly, you shouldn't click the link.
It's somewhat morbid and creepifying, mostly, I think, for the sheer elegance of its attack. Each variety of the fungus specifically attacks one and only one kind of insect, and (presumably) inspires similar behaviours to spread its spores further.
It might also be because the ants' entire defence to it is to just get the infected ants the hell away from their colony as soon as they're discovered. In other words, cordyceps is scary for ants.
*presses play, shivers involuntarily*
It's somewhat morbid and creepifying, mostly, I think, for the sheer elegance of its attack. Each variety of the fungus specifically attacks one and only one kind of insect, and (presumably) inspires similar behaviours to spread its spores further.
It might also be because the ants' entire defence to it is to just get the infected ants the hell away from their colony as soon as they're discovered. In other words, cordyceps is scary for ants.
*presses play, shivers involuntarily*
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no subject
Date: 2006-12-06 12:10 am (UTC)