Sup guys! Welcome to the Ant Canada ant channel. I am watching my
really awesome and just
Fascinating colony of Paratrechina longicornis. They are a tropical species
also known as black crazy ants
now just the throwback if you guys think about the series aliens starring sigourney weaver that whole series
You might notice that they have a lot of similarities to
these you social insects like ants and wasps for one thing the aliens live in colonies composed of
Well the aliens which were like workers and a queen who would lay the eggs and give rise to
The rest of the Alien creatures. the creator of the Alien series actually admitted that
He was inspired by the lives of bees, wasps and ants and termites
Which I think was pretty cool now a particular interest in this video the chest busters
You know the queen would lay an egg and that egg would hatch into this larva creature
and
it would end up in a human and kind of incubate there and feed on the person's innards and then eventually burst out of the
Human's chest where it would continue to live its life and grow into an adult
Alien now thank God we humans don't have to deal with that, and that's just fiction
But ants actually do have to deal with those chest buster's in the ant world
They have to deal with all sorts of creepy and Gross
Endoparasites now while creating this video guys. I admit I
was completely
disgusted because I'm what they call is called like a phobic which is an
Irrational fear of worms, and I am just disgusted and terrified by worms
I have always been disgusted and terrified by worms
[I] think it happened when I was [a] child, and I watched my puppy vomit tapeworms. [I] think that's where it started, but
Fishing and all of that really grows worms and maggots really grow so creating this video was nasty
but it was also very very and
and so for this week's video of the Ants Canada ant channel I wanted to talk about and
ant endoparasites
presenting and endo parasite exhibit a
Nematodes also known as round worms the total number of nematode species has been estimated to be about 1
Million and over half of the ones that we've discovered so far are known to be parasitic
This photo was provided to us by Andrew Smith from former culture.com
He managed to take a picture of a worker with a nematode breaking free of this ants gaster. How did it get there?
You ask well. Let's look at the life cycle of this nematode species
This photo from science blogs.com by Brian Switek shows the interesting life cycle of one such nematode species
Now what you see here are sefaLottie's ants also known as turtle ants
now the turtle ant to the left is a healthy worker ant but the turtle ant to the right is an infected Turtle ant
Infected by a Tetradelimited nematode species the first thing you might notice is it's bright, Red Gaster
This physiological change was brought about by being infected by this species of nematode
And it just so happens that this bright red Gaster closely resembles berries
Now check this out guys. So now that the infected worker is full of nematodes and is basically about to die it
Just sits there unable to move and then along comes a bird sees its bright red Gaster and eats
It thinking it's a berry so within the bird the nematodes break free further develop
Breed and lay eggs. these eggs
Eventually get casted off into the birds droppings which then gets picked up by ants and is fed to larvae
within the Larvae the Eggs hatch and
reside in the ant all the way until adulthood
The nematodes developed by the time the ant is an adult and the cycle begins all over again
The nematode breaking free from the gaster of this picture was probably ingested by the ant at larval Stage
exhibit B
This video sent in by Dari Jaden shows a Queen Camponotus ant and her gaster are
completely swollen as if she's fizzled gastric ready to lay eggs, but
inside that gaster are not eggs
What could they be you can see them slither and move around just beneath the Membrane can you guess what they are?
Have a look
Maggots
parasitic maggots that is
How these parasitic maggots got here there are a few possibilities?
they could have been ingested by the queen as she was growing like in the nematodes or
the adult fly the parent of these maggots
Could have managed to lay her eggs on the queen ant while she was out flying during her nuptial flight
Many parasitic flies need only a split second to lay a batch of eggs onto the exoskeleton of an ant
The eggs hatch and the tiny maggots burrow into the queen where they feed on her insides and develop into these large maggots which then
Emerge and pupate forming cocoons and from these cocoons emerge adult parasitic flies
The parasitic flies mate the pregnant flies lay their batch of eggs once again on a queen ant and the cycle starts all over again
You might recall a video
We did on a parasitic fly where it emerged from a Queen lacius ant
Be sure to check out that video we also know of other flies that parasitize ant
including a species of forward flies that infects fire ant and
Decapitates them when they emerge from the ants body there are probably hundreds of parasitic flies out there that are ant parasites
Good luck eating your lunch guys
Gross
exhibit C
Now in this photo by N
Which Valerie taken from Bagua.org
You'll see a deceased ant with weird growths coming out of its exoskeleton. [if] you haven't heard about them yet
This is the ever-famous
cordyceps fungus
Now the way the cordyceps fungus works is the spores end up on the exoskeleton of the ant
From these spores has the fungus which eventually burrow into the body of the ant and make its way to the brain
Once at the Brain this fungus controls the ants behavior turning them into zombies
These newly zombified ants can't do anything
But move around and the fungus controls the ant making it want to travel upwards
the ant ends up crawling up a plant or a branch and
Once at the perfect location the fungus causes the ant to bite down and anchor itself and soon from the ants head
ant body grows the funguses mushroom
It's right out of a science fiction novel once fully grown the mushroom releases spores which continues the life cycle of the cordyceps fungus
Can you believe ants have to deal with zombification?
Thank God
we're not ants and
Believe it or not the cordyceps fungus is a collection of many many different species and each species
specializes on a
Specific species of ant other insect or other arthropod. check out this cordyceps fungus that erupted from this wasp
Thank God. I'm not an ant. there you have it guys
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