Posts on ‘April 8th, 2012’

This is creepy: Among the odder ant-attacking parasites are mermithid worms. These nematodes sit coiled inside their hosts’ abdomens, consuming stored reserves and disrupting normal development. Infected ants have smaller heads and a distended gaster, a distortion striking enough that taxonomists failing to recognize the signs of parasitism have occasionally described these forms as novel [...]