Mental Floss has a nice two-post line-up of the weirdest mind-controlling parasites that we know of (1, 2). Some will no doubt be familiar to readers of the Loom, but others may be disturbingly new.
Update: Also check out Discover’s own gallery of parasitic horrors.
Carl Zimmer writes about science regularly for the New York Times and magazines such as Discover, where he is a contributing editor and columnist.
He is the author of seven books, the most recent of which is The Tangled Bank: An Introduction To Evolution. His website is carlzimmer.com and his address is [ blog at carlzimmer dot com ].
Recent Posts
DISCOVERmagazine: Living World DISCOVER Blogs: Bad Astronomy
May 15th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
The fish-tongue has to be the creepiest one, if for no other reason than because the image reminds me of Alien(s).
Also, I think it’s absolutely fascinating how these very simple animals have managed to evolve on a complex enough scale as to actually begin controlling the actions of another creature. Well. Fascinating and horrifying.
May 15th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
Some of these parasites remind me of assorted horror movie I’ve seen over the years. Funny how things that would terrify us if they ever happened to humans are perfectly natural in the insect kingdom.