T Minus Ten. Nine. Eight....

[drhoz]

Been too long since I've done a parasite post, so...

Lungworm! And Fungus Cannon!

Dictyocaulus is a genus of nematode worms, parasitic upon large herbivores including cattle, elk, deer, horses, and donkeys. They spend most of their life in the lungs, causing the disease 'Husk'. Their eggs, however, get coughed up and swallowed, and hatch into L1

Comments

[jimheem]

awesome post.

[drhoz]

thanks :D

[rayefrenzy]

This is brilliant!

[drhoz]

Ta :D - I'm dissapointed I couldn't find any footage on YouTube of the worms strapping themselves into the launch couches though

[hayleyscomet]

Capturing the lungworms flying with the spores is certainly the next step.

While working on this research, we began playing with nematodes as stand-ins for the lungworms. Like the lungworms, they crawl all over the place, including all over the Pilobolus stalks.

It is not clear if lungworms actually end up hitching a ride on the spores or not. And if they do, it's not clear if they purposefully climb up the stalks or just end up there on accident. Hopefully further research will yield some more answers--and some more WTF moments ;)

[drhoz]

yay!

[sabazinus]

That is so awesome. It's like something from a Sci-Fi or Horror movie.

[drhoz]

Just one reason I love biology

[mokele]

They launch upwards? How does this compare with Vogel's biomechanics work indicating that, at such tiny sizes where viscous forces overpower inertial forces, the optimal launch angle for distance is almost horizontal?

I'm not a scientist...

[snobahr]

...nor do I play one on TV, but I'm going to totally pull a supposition out of my backside.
Since the spores shoot towards the sun, they have to be pointing towards the sun, which will at least get the critters off the cowpatty itself. There might be some weather-related assistance in there somewhere, too, if a breeze is blowing at launch time.
I'm also guessing the 55 MPH launch was developed specifically to overcome viscous vs inertia.

[drhoz]

The preferred launch time is early morning, so it's pretty horizontal anyway

[postingwhore]

I learned about this fungus in my mycology course, and we got to see it shoot on a video :D We also saw the parasite swimming around in the fungus. It was fucking awesome.

[drhoz]

cool beans :D