Mother Nature is not usually kind. There are creatures, usually tiny creatures, that will take over a member of another species. They will invade their host’s bodies, their brains, and even their will. They turn their much-larger victims into zombies!
1. Zombie Snails -Induced Vulnerability
The flatworm Leucochloridium paradoxum infects two different animals in its lifetime, but only controls one of them. It lives its adult life inside birds and its eggs are spread by bird excretion. How does it get inside the birds? That’s the horror story. Amber snails eat the eggs, which hatch in the snail’s digestive tract. The larva changes into sporocysts (or broodsacs), which elongate and invade the snail’s tentacles atop its head. The broodsacs, filled with hundred of Leucochloridium paradoxum, pulsate and seek light. The snail is helpless to retract its tentacles, and has lost its ability to perceive light and therefore does not hide. The inflated tentacles move like worms, attracting birds that bite off the tentacles. The flatworms then develop into the adult stage inside the bird. The snail, however, is left to die -or to undergo the process again.
2. Zombie Crabs -Slave Governess
A barnacle named Sacculina wants to nest inside a crab. A female Sacculina will look for a place to enter the crab’s body. When it does, it will leave its shell behind, not needing it anymore as it has the crab! Inside, Sacculina sets up shop, growing tendrils through the crab’s body and slowly feeding on it. It castrates the crab (if male) and effectively turns the crab into a female nanny for its young. This makes the crab not only infertile but also uninterested in mating. The barnacle, on the other hand, bores a hole open in the crab’s shell big enough to let male Sacculina in to mate. The zombie crab treats the Sacculina eggs and larvae as its own, having lost the will to do anything but serve its parasite master. Image credit: Hans Hillewaert.
3. Zombie Caterpillars -Slave Bodyguard
Glyptapanteles is a wasp that lays its eggs in the body of a caterpillar. This is a three layered parasitic infection. The wasps engage the help of a virus, or more accurately a polydnavirus that has been genetically modified by the wasps, to disable the caterpillar’s immune system, allowing the wasp eggs to survive. The relationship between the wasps and the virus is mutually beneficial; only the caterpillars get the short end of the stick. The eggs hatch and feed on the caterpillar, but do not kill it. Instead, the caterpillar stops developing and spends the rest of its life protecting the wasp larva, even going as far as spinning its own cocoon around the wasp pupae. Watch a video of the entire process. When the adult wasp emerges from its cocoon, the zombie caterpillar finally tastes the sweet release of death.
4. Zombie Grasshoppers -Induced Suicide
The parasitic hairworm Spinochordodes tellinii is deadly to grasshoppers. Once eaten by a grasshopper or cricket, the larval worm produces proteins that affect the insect’s brain and nervous system. By the time the worm reaches adulthood, the insect is completely under its power. The zombie grasshopper commits suicide by jumping into water, where the worm will emerge and look for a mate.
5. Zombie Fish -Luring Its Killer
The parasitic worm Euhaplorchis californiensis infects three other species in a cycle, and alters the behavior of two of them. First, the eggs are consumed by horn snails. While living inside a snail, sometimes for several generations, Euhaplorchis inhibits the snail’s fertility. The parasite will eventually leave the snail and infect the gills of a killifish. The worms will surround the fish’s brain and cause it to swim near the surface and wiggle around. This makes the fish more likely to be eaten by a bird, which is what Euhaplorchis wanted in the first place. The digestive system of a bird is where the worm lays its eggs, which are excreted onto the beach where snails can reach them.
6. Zombie Ants -Serving the Impostors
Even butterflies can make other species into zombies! Maculina rebeli, a European butterfly, lay eggs that exude the scent of ant queens. Worker ants welcome them into their colony. The butterflies emerge as caterpillars which are fed by the ants. The ants treat them as their own young, or even better than ordinary ant larvae since they perceive the caterpillars to be queen ant larvae. Worker ants will even defend the caterpillars against their own queen! You may think of ants as zombies already, but they normally only serve their own species.
7. Zombie Fish Tongue -Artificial Organ
Cymothoa exigua is a small crustacean found off the coast of California. You don’t have to worry about it unless you are a spotted rose snapper. C. exigua invades the mouth of these fish and grabs onto the base of the tongue, pinching off the blood supply and drinking it. As the tongue atrophies, the fish begins to use the little isopod as a replacement tongue. Meanwhile, C. exigua lives its life inside the fish’s mouth, drinking blood and fish slime from the tongue’s stump. Other than the loss of its tongue, the fish suffers little from the experience, so the two can share a normal, if creepy, lifespan.
8. Zombie Cockroach -Commandeered Nursery
The Emerald Cockroach Wasp (Ampulex compressa) makes a slave out a much larger cockroach. The wasp will sting the roach twice, paralyzing its front legs and taking the escape reflex away from its brain. Then the wasp will chew off half of the roach’s antennae and uses what’s left to steer the roach to a prepared nest. The wasp lays an egg on the roach’s abdomen and leaves. The egg will hatch and feed off the roach, which still won’t try to escape. The wasp larvae keeps the docile roach alive long enough to build a cocoon inside the roach’s body and transform into an adult wasp. An adult female wasp can enslave and lays eggs on several dozen zombie roaches.
Are there organisms that will have effects like this on human behavior? I believe there may be, but the voices in my head tell me they are a secret.
Update: Also see the sequel to this post, 7 More Zombie Animals
Comments (26)
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Most disturbing _floss post EVER. I couldn’t even finish reading it. I applaud you Miss Cellania for being able to do the research.
posted by Kolja on 5-7-2009 at 9:06 am
Firstly::: *eugh*… And I thought ringworms etc were horrific!
Secondly: Fish have tongues!? :O :S
posted by ariaDne on 5-7-2009 at 10:33 am
I second Kolja – I couldn’t even finish reading this. Bleech…great post.
posted by Jenny on 5-7-2009 at 11:54 am
Wow, Miss C – astoundingly creepy post.
posted by Roger on 5-7-2009 at 12:03 pm
“Planet Earth” (the original, not the Disney knock off), showed a fungus that infects ants, causing them to behave erratically and spread the fungus to other ants. Eventually the infected ant dies and a mushroom like growth sprouts from it.
As for humans, how about toxoplasmosis? It spreads from cat feces to mice, then makes the mice seek out cat-urine-marked areas where they’ll get eaten by a cat. I wonder if an acute case of toxoplasmosis will make an old lady go out and get dozens of cats.
posted by Bryan on 5-7-2009 at 12:10 pm
This makes me think of the cordyceps fungus from the Jungles episode of Planet Earth. I can’t decide if I’m more fascinated or disgusted…
posted by Jessica on 5-7-2009 at 12:22 pm
I read every word. I was familiar with all examples but the butterfly. I also second toxoplasma gondii for humans.
posted by Kristen on 5-7-2009 at 12:47 pm
Carl Zimmer’s book, Parasite Rex, discusses some of these little darlings (and others) in more detail.
Ain’t nature grand?
posted by Jay on 5-7-2009 at 1:09 pm
You are far more likely to contract toxoplasmosis from food than you are from a cat. Most of us have toxo already, and we aren’t all hoarding cats, are we? People who hoard animals have a psychological disorder that no antibiotic is going to fix.
posted by loripop on 5-7-2009 at 1:11 pm
Uggh! Gross! Great story. I was grossed out reading it but I couldn’t stop. My eyes are burning with images of Zombie caterpillars, and swollen snail antennae!
GREAT POST!
posted by Chrystani on 5-7-2009 at 2:01 pm
I think Cracked already did most of these fairly recently, see the link in my name.
posted by Jennings on 5-7-2009 at 2:34 pm
Creepiest post ever. The imagines made my heart jump in my throat.
posted by Kari on 5-7-2009 at 2:58 pm
Jennings: Oh great, how come I didn’t see that? I’ve been collecting these for over a year, but if I’d known about the Cracked post, I would’ve put it off for another year.
posted by Miss Cellania on 5-7-2009 at 4:27 pm
Actually, my father and uncle suffered from toxoplasmosis attacking their organs. Nearly killed my uncle and caused my father to go mostly blind. They both got it from my grandmother who was an unknowing host. Let’s not dismiss it out-of-hand now…
posted by Tom in GA on 5-7-2009 at 4:35 pm
Gross! But awesome.
posted by Whit on 5-7-2009 at 4:37 pm
Hey Miss Cellania,
there is another zombie parasite (Dicroelium dentriticum or Lancet Liver Fluke) that infects ruminants, snails and zombiefies ants. Neither you nor the Cracked post covered it though it is a real sweetheart.
In an infected ant, several metacercariae hatch in the stomach, drill through the stomach wall, plug the holes behind them and then spread throughout the body. One of them sacrifices itself and becomes a brain parasite, controlling the ant.
During the day the infected ant acts normal but in the evening when the air cools, instead of returning home into the burrow it gets the urge to climb atop a plant and bite the tip in a cramp that lasts all night. The parasite wants the ant to be eaten by a sheep or cow. If the ant doesn’t get eaten, in the morning the cramp will loosen and the ant does a full working day until evening, when it becomes a zombie again…
posted by Tom on 5-7-2009 at 4:51 pm
As a person who deals with bizarre situations on a daily basis at work, I found this interesting and also fascinating. Please continue to keep up the great posts…
posted by MedicDave on 5-7-2009 at 4:55 pm
That was actually really cool. Now excuse me for a moment while I hurl…
posted by Fabius2245 on 5-8-2009 at 10:23 am
Miss C, I hope you don’t take that cracked reference as a slight of any kind. I really appreciate all the articles and links you post(here, neatorama, and your site). I think I’ve said it here before, but a lot of what I like about reading the _Floss is the comments and information from fellow readers. Even if some of the content is the same, reading it without the dick jokes is a much more pleasant experience. So Thank You =)
posted by Jennings on 5-8-2009 at 11:16 am
Yeah, this article is very interesting.
The cracked one is just funny-i like the dick jokes:)
posted by holly on 5-8-2009 at 11:26 am
It is obvious that aliens from the movie are not something new. These examples proves it.
posted by Laurus Nobilis on 5-12-2009 at 1:20 pm
WHAT THE HELL. number 7 is weird….
posted by sam on 5-12-2009 at 11:54 pm
God certainly let his imagination go wild on the day of creation!
posted by Manny on 5-13-2009 at 3:05 am
A parasite that influences human behavior for its own ends, eh? I’ve got one! The Guinea worm! This dreaded parasite starts its life inside of a copepod, where the eggs hatch and the larvae incubate. This is only a transitional host; humans are the real target. When a human drinks water containing the copepods, the copepods get digested and the larvae are freed. They migrate out of the digestive system and into the body cavity, where they mate. The females then migrate to the feet where they trigger a painful burning sensation in the feet. You literally feel as though your feet are on fire, which drives you to do the most natural thing possible in the circumstances — stick your feet into the water. That’s when the female erupts through the skin and starts laying her eggs into the water, starting the cycle over again. Every time you stick your feet into water, she’ll start laying.
Oh, and there’s no deworming agent that’ll kill it. The only treatment is to grab the protruding worm, wrap it around a stick so it can’t go back in, and then slowly extract it over the course of a month by gradually winding more of it onto the stick. This is excruciatingly painful.
Fortunately, some simple measures are on the verge of wiping this little bastard out. The tricky part is that it incubates for a long time, so you have to get everybody to cooperate for a couple of years to be sure of breaking the cycle. (Don’t stick blisters into public water supplies, in case there’s a worm inside. Never drink unfiltered water from a lake or river; rely on filters or groundwater.)
This may be the only animal that everyone is very happy to say is in the “critically endangered” list. ;-)
posted by Calli Arcale on 6-2-2009 at 4:45 pm
Another human parasite: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_botfly
posted by nook on 8-13-2009 at 8:16 pm
Picture #1: how did you get that freakish thing on your pot leaves? man you gotta keep a cleaner garden than that!
posted by unicornsarereal420 on 10-15-2010 at 5:29 am