Fungus that takes over it's host

Carl_Constantine · Post by **Carl_Constantine** » Fri Jan 19, 2007 12:07 am

This is on spikedhumor, so be sure you have your popup blockers on, but I found the video VERY interesting and thought I would share it.

http://spikedhumor.com/articles/78050/A ... ictim.html

Ken Ramos · Post by **Ken Ramos** » Fri Jan 19, 2007 3:29 am

I've seen this video before Carl. Quite an interesting and eerie type of thing isn't it.

Carl_Constantine · Post by **Carl_Constantine** » Fri Jan 19, 2007 3:02 pm

Yes, I can't imagine what this does these guys. Would it affect humans???

Ken Ramos · Post by **Ken Ramos** » Fri Jan 19, 2007 3:50 pm

Carl asked:

Would it affect humans???

In my research so far I have found no mention of it, however, there are other fungi just as deadly and producing somewhat similar disfigurations after infecting human hosts. The spore nuclei of the Cordyceps are hapliod (1n) having only one set of chromosomes, therefore they are susceptable to mutation, from my limited understanding of Ascomycetes or Ascomycotoa. Could they mutate to animals? So far I have found no reference discussing that possiblity.

Come spring, I hope to find Cordyceps where they have wintered over inside a caterpillar or two and examine them a bit more closely. According to the video (there is a version of that by the way, that is a few seconds longer on YouTube) there are thousands of Cordyceps species, each one atuned to a particular species of insect and affecting the insects in a diverse manner of ways, i.e the stroma or fruiting body erupting from behind the ants head, while in other insects, it may erupt from the abdomenal area of the insect or other times erupting from the joints of appendages, as in grasshoppers.