'Zombie ants' controlled by parasitic fungus for 48m years

[lilitu93]

Earliest evidence of fungus that takes over ants' behaviour for its own ends found by scientists

The oldest evidence of a fungus that turns ants into zombies and makes them stagger to their death has been uncovered by scientists.

Comments

[888mph]

Now, seriously. Could you please put that photo under the cut? I have mycophobia and the fact that this pic is in my flist is making me tear-up and gag.

[lilitu93]

Sorry, I didn't realise the photo was that bad. I've edited it now. I don't know if you go to the Guardian (where the original article is), but you might want to avoid it for today, since a smaller version is on the home page of the site last time I looked.

[blasphemusfish]

Ooh do you have firefox? You can get an addon that blocks specific images, handy for things like this. Just saying because some OPs might not be as quick to reply/cut, and we get a fair few fungus posts here.

[lilitu93]

If you're talking about AdBlock, I think you can get it for several browsers, including Safari and Chrome, though I'm not sure if they are fully functional. I don't know about IE.

Also, I just happened to be around when I got that reply - if it had happened at a different time, I might not have been at the computer. And sorry again for not putting it under the cut - I thought it was just the safe side of 'gross', since it's on the home page of a national newspaper today.

[blasphemusfish]

Ahh ic, I'm just familiar with Firefox cx

And don't worry about the cut at all, honestly I wouldn't have thought about it either. It wasn't against the rules or anything, they just cover gore/upsetting to most type images. Mycophobia is an obscure thing to consider, also why I thought it might be handy for 888mph to have adblock if their browser supports it.

[888mph]

Nonono. You didn't do anything wrong. You were very gracious for putting it under the cut, which is more than you had to. I do realize mycophobia is rare, but then again, I'm the one who bought a tee with a clown print that I thought it was really cute and then was all surprised when everybody started running screaming whenever I wore it. ;)

Thanks, glad to see there are adults here, unlike the "big babies" below.

[lilitu93]

Glad you're OK now. I don't have any extreme phobias, only mild ones, but I do get that triggers are really serious for those who have them.

[888mph]

And sorry for using the f-word in your post.

[lilitu93]

As long as it wasn't directed at me, I don't mind. ;-)

[scythemantis]

It's a genus parasitic on insects alone, it could never possibly jump to other animals, ya big baby. If you have a nature phobia why watch a community entirely about shocking and bizarre nature? 0o

[888mph]

Fuck you.

[blasphemusfish]

Oh ffs. If someone with a phobia wants to work towards beating it, it's on their terms ONLY, maybe something that wouldn't ordinarily be an issue isn't worth paying out for treatment, hey...

Honestly though, did the lack of a cut bother and inconvenience you that much? Sounds like you have a cutphobia olololol best joke ever

[888mph]

Sounds like you have a cutphobia olololol best joke ever

Ok, that was cute. :D

[scythemantis]

Nothing about my post was supposed to sound insulting. "Ya big baby" is a VERY lighthearted phrase and the latter was a legitimate question - you should expect images like these on wtf_nature.

"Fuck you" is a disproportionately aggressive response.

[888mph]

No, it was not. And, funny, this was not your original reply. I wonder where it is...