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'Zombie' Ants And The Fungus That Saves Them
NPR ^ | May 2, 2012 | Eyder Peralta

Posted on 05/04/2012 7:14:33 AM PDT by Squawk 8888

As you can probably tell, at least one person on this blog's masthead likes ants.

So we've always been bummed that we haven't had the opportunity to tell you about zombie ants, but today we are glad to report there is a new development in the field. Luckily, it's a good-news report about a fungus that limits the fungus that turns ants into zombies.

In the current edition of the journal PLoS ONE, an international research team led by David Hughes of Penn State University reports that they've found the fungus that allows an ant colony to survive infestations by a "zombie-ant fungus, which invades an ant's brain and causes it to march to its death at a mass grave near the ant colony, where the fungus spores erupt out of the ant's head."

(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: livingdead; zombie

1 posted on 05/04/2012 7:14:35 AM PDT by Squawk 8888
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To: Squawk 8888
Zombie Fungus!!!!
2 posted on 05/04/2012 7:16:41 AM PDT by allmendream (Tea Party did not send GOP to DC to negotiate the terms of our surrender to socialism)
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To: Squawk 8888

When all the animals on the planet and fish in the ocean are extinct, the ants will still be here.


3 posted on 05/04/2012 7:23:44 AM PDT by Old Retired Army Guy
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To: Squawk 8888

Is this thread a bait and switch? I came here thinking it would be about democrat voters the media. I had no idea this would be about insects.


4 posted on 05/04/2012 7:28:50 AM PDT by C210N (Wanted: Tagline)
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To: Squawk 8888

Sounds just like the way liberalism works.


5 posted on 05/04/2012 7:36:06 AM PDT by capt. norm (Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves for they shall never run out of material. c)
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To: Squawk 8888

Someone needs to post a pic of a libtard with a bunch of face piercings.


6 posted on 05/04/2012 7:45:03 AM PDT by RingerSIX (My wife and I took an AIDS vaccine that they offer down at our Church.)
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To: Old Retired Army Guy
When all the animals on the planet and fish in the ocean are extinct, the ants will still be here.

It will be the ants vs. the cockroaches one step before that. Yeah, my money is on the ants as well.

Anyway, the entry on ants at Wikipedia contains a link to the Schmidt Sting Pain Index that is too good not to share (useful reference):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schmidt_Sting_Pain_Index

7 posted on 05/04/2012 8:03:05 AM PDT by Moltke (Always retaliate first.)
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To: Moltke

Those sting descriptions are great.


8 posted on 05/04/2012 8:10:12 AM PDT by Yardstick
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To: Yardstick

Ants are cool.

Roaches? Eh, not so cool.

Wasps? They rock and roll: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/12/071206-roach-zombie.html


9 posted on 05/04/2012 8:28:20 AM PDT by EQAndyBuzz (Would you rather eat dog food or cat food? Guess it's Romney 2012.)
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To: Squawk 8888

"..and I for one welcome our new insect overlords."

10 posted on 05/04/2012 8:29:52 AM PDT by dfwgator (Don't wake up in a roadside ditch. Get rid of Romney.)
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To: Yardstick

OK. All I could think of was the theme from the Pink Panther— Dead ant, dead ant, dead ant dead ant dead ant.................


11 posted on 05/04/2012 8:30:04 AM PDT by cotton
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To: Old Retired Army Guy

It’s been shown that scorpions are very sturdy and will most likely be survivors long after man is gone as well.

They have found ants, roaches, rats and scorpions near nuclear test sites after the blasts and they are all able to take the heat and radiation of the bomb without much effect.

I’ve seen scorpions frozen in a block of ice and thawed out with a blowtorch and they just walk away. Also, a scorpion can go for 1 year without eating or drinking.

Insects are very strong and will outlast us for sure.


12 posted on 05/04/2012 8:52:44 AM PDT by Jack Burton007 (This is Jack Burton in the Pork Chop Express, and I'm talkin' to whoever's listenin' out there.)
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To: lonevoice

So that is how liberalism is spread from one useful idiot to the next useful idiot.


13 posted on 05/04/2012 9:24:40 AM PDT by Pride in the USA
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To: Squawk 8888

Here is the famous or infamous Zombie ant video from the BBC, narrated by the famous, or infamous, Sir David Attenborough.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuKjBIBBAL8


14 posted on 05/04/2012 10:01:56 AM PDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy
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To: Pride in the USA

That’s an even more disturbing and disgusting propagation mechanism than I’d previously imagined.

Nature is unbelievably weird, and that’s only what we know and understand of it.


15 posted on 05/04/2012 10:12:36 AM PDT by lonevoice (Klepto Baracka Marxo, impeach we much.)
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To: lonevoice

A variety of Cordyceps is reputed to have anticarcinogenic properties and an extract is marketed in tablet form for human and animal consumption.

If you’re wondering what sort of bug it took over, zombified, killed and ate, it’s caterpillar larvae found at high altitudes in China. The variety is Cordyceps Sinensis.

http://www.naturalnews.com/027869_cordyceps_cancer.html


16 posted on 06/04/2012 4:31:50 PM PDT by RegulatorCountry
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