Alex Wild on insects, science, and photography
I can’t imagine what an insect infected with a mermithid nematode must feel. In Belize last week we encountered several parasitized trap-jaw ants, each stumbling about with a belly twice the heft of that in a healthy ant. Scaled to human size, a mermithid would be at least as intrusive as an anaconda coiled among [...]
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 [...]
A personal blog by Illinois-based biologist and photographer Alex Wild.
Myrmecos- derived from the ancient greek word for "ant"- hosts Alex's musings about these and other little creatures that share our planet.
Questions? Email alwild [at] myrmecos.net; or follow @Myrmecos on Twitter.
