The Leatfcutter Cultivation of Fungus

Brief description:

The Leafcutter ants build their fortress underground. They collect a kind of leaves (non-edible) in order to cultivate a species of fungus in their nest. The fungus has the ability to break down the toxins in the leaves, and in turn the fungus will swell with proteins and sugar. This swollen fungus which are rich in proteins and sugar is the food source of the leafcutter ants.

The ants and the fungus depend on each other for a living. Leafcutter ants see the fungus as a source of food. On the other hand, the fungus depend on the ants to bring in food for them (in this case, the leaves). The fungus also seek protection from the ants against a type of mould that will grow on the fungus and wipe them out.

Interestingly, the ants's body have bacteria to produce an antibiotics against the mould. The antibiotics supresses the growth of mould on their food source in the nest!

The Extraordinary Pet

Let's have a discussion on Praying mantis! The reason is, praying mantis is one of my all-time-favourite insects! =) Praying mantis is one of the few insects which can turn and rotate its tiny head very much like a human does. It can turn its head left, right, and even nod its head! Praying mantis is a predator, it preys on living insects, depending on its size. The larger ones can even prey on small lizards or even birds and etc.

 Picture Source

They use their strong and spikey forearms to catch their preys. Once caught, they will not loosen their grip, and eat the preys alive. They may sound scary, but they are friends to farmers, their food is usually pests.

The one I am going to talk more about on is the Green Praying Mantis. It resembles a ninja a lot in nature.

Firstly, it is a master in camouflage, the body color it has allow it to blend into the surroundings without being noticed. Secondly, praying mantis' best skill is to ambush. It will usually hide at a corner and wait patiently for its chance. Thirdly, it has a ninja's agility to strike at the speed of lightning at high accuracy!

Picture source

Here are some of my personal experiences with Praying mantis.

In the past, I used to have a green praying mantis as a family pet. At that time when I caught it in the bushes, it was still a baby mantis I think. We kept it in a glass tank with ample space for it to move around. Most of the time, we let the mantis move around our house under our supervision.

The interesting thing was that the mantis liked to follow our movement. For example, it would follow our fingers, turned its head to look at us whenever it spotted us, and it even followed us when we walked! It liked to be stroked gently on its head and back.

Praying mantis will molt in its life cycle. For our poor mantis, due to our lack of experience in handling. We failed to provide it with a stick that it could stand on during molting. As a result, its legs were deformed during the molting process. We discovered that only on the next day. It was a great pain to see it living the rest of its life with deformed legs, and could no longer run as fast as before. =(

Picture Source

It gets rid of the flies in our house. We would provide it with pre-caught-flies if it failed to capture its prey after several attempts. Praying mantis is fun to look at and it is simply adorable. It may look like a little alien, but it is one insect that you can raise like any other house pet! (dogs, cats, hamsters) Having a dog as pet is not special, raising a Praying mantis is extraordinarily unique and a great experience!

The Young Soul Trapped In An Old Body

Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome, commonly known as Progeria or Aging disorder. As its name implies, babies born with this condition start to age at a very tender age and usually die at the age of 13 to 14.

Around the world, there are not many known cases of this disorder, affecting newborns at a rate of about 1 in 8million. Although Progeria is a genetic disorder, it is not inheritable.

Symptoms:

• The child will have normal appearance in early stage of infancy, symtoms start to surface at the age of 9 to 24 months.
• Growth delays, the child will have short stature, look smaller than children of the same age.
• Distinct facial appearences such as small faces, small jaws, huge heads, malformation of teeth, wrinkled skins, baldness.
• The affected child will develop similar respiratory, arthritic and cardiovascular conditions of an old person at later stage of the disorder.
• The growth of the affected child seems arrest and fast-forward at the same time in the same body. The child with the age of 10 will resemble the body size of a 3-yr-old, but the child will have the appearance of a 80-yr-old.

There is no treatment proven to be effective against this disorder. Sad to say, patients have difficulty living past the age of 13. There is a rare case of a Progeria patient living till the age of 21. Mentally, the affected child will be at his real age. Physically, he is growing at 8 times faster than normal kids!

Susana Lopez, is the oldest Progeria sufferer, 21-yr-old

Most of the affected children die of complications from the disorder, such as heart attack and stroke.

Parents Carrying Babies Around With Them

When you think of spiders, what is your first impression about them?

When you see a scorpion, what will be your first reaction?

Cold-blooded animals are not as cold blooded as they seem. In the nature, there are many which protect their off-springs tenderly. They may have an ugly appearances, but their motherly love is greatness above all!

A female spider carrying a lot of her babies!

"It's so crowded up here >.<"

 

"When I was young, your grandma carried me around. And now, I'll carry all of you on my back, not leaving out any single one."

A mother scorpion carrying her babies lovingly on her back despite her ferocious nature. She will protect her youngs until they are able to hunt for food independently.

"Mommy, do you need a rest?"

"You are not a burden. =) "

Dendrobates minutus female and her baby.

"Mum, will you piggyback me until I can walk on my own?"

"Ofcourse, Dear, the world outside is too dangerous for you right now."

"Mum, am I too heavy for you?"

"Silly child, I won't give up on you no matter what happen."

Camel Spider the Human Flesh Eater?

Have you ever heard of Camel spider or Wind scorpion?

Below is a picture of 2 Camel spiders with some Iraq soldiers.

There are several legends about the Camel spider which make it a horrifying creature!

1. Camel spider is a huge size creature, which feeds on animals and human flesh!!! It has been said that, the creature will inject some venom into the flesh of a sleeping human to numb him, and then happily chew and eat the flesh. The victim will awake with a wide open wound!

2. Camel spider screams as it runs.

3. It is given the name 'Camel' spider because the creature will attack camels and feed on them!!!

4. Camel spider will chase human and it can jump up to 1 metre!

Does the Camel spider freak you out?

The above is all FAKE! They are just legends.

Camel spider is neither a spider not a scorpion, it is grouped under Solifugae, an order of Arachnida. Camel spider and Wind scorpion are the common names.

First of all, Camel spider is not that huge as the one shown in the picture. The photo itself is an eye trickery that exaggerated the size of the creature. Camel spider does not have venom, and it only preys on termites, beetles and other small insects. It will never attack organisms that are larger than it, unless threatened. So forget about Camel spider feeding on camels.

Camel spider DOES NOT scream!

Camel spider is about 12cm with its legs outstretched. It will NOT chase people! This perspection may be due to Camel spider seeking shade in open, therefore it will follow the shadow of a person which gives the impression that it is 'chasing' him. Rest assure, it is just a shadow-seeker, not human-chaser.

Do not get deceived by those exaggerating 'facts'.

The Body Invader - Bodyguard for Enemies

I have come across a video clip from National Geographic program which is really interesting. However, the video may look gross to those who hate or have phobia of caterpillars. Watch at your own risk．＝）

A wasp had laid its eggs into the body of a catepillar. The larvae hatched and grew inside the catepillar body, feeding on their host's blood. As they grew larger, they broke out from the catepillar skin using their tiny saw-like teeth!

The catepillar is not dead yet, at that moment. The larvae of the wasp then spinned their own cocoons. The poor catepillar will then start to act as a body guard protecting the wasp larvae until it eventually starves to death.

The wasp larvae not only parasitised the catepillar, they manipulated the behaviours of their host to protect them through the pupa stage when they were vulnerable to other predators! The poor catepillar protected its enemies till the end of its life.

The Giant living Underground

I believe all of you have seen an earthworm before, but what is the size of the largest earthworm you have ever seen? 5cm? 10cm? Or 20cm? (in length)

In this post, I am going to introduce the world's LARGEST Earthworm - the Giant Gippsland Earthworm! For those who does not know about this species of earthworm, can you have a wild guess of how long will it be in the adult stage? (when stretch out)

a) 30cm?

b) 50cm?

c) 80cm?

d) 100cm?

e) 200cm?

Continue reading to find out the right answer by yourself.

The Giant Gippsland Earthworm is the largest Australian native worm, and it is the largest on earth too. The species name for this giant is Megascolides australis, when it was first discovered in 1870s, it was thought to be a snake!

A Giant Gippsland Earthworm egg

Photographer: Alan Henderson / Source: Museum Victoria

The earthworm has a grayish-pink body, and dark purplish-blue head. This giant earthworm lives deep underground and rarely leaves its moist underground maze, however, heavy rain may flush them out to the soil surface. When stomping on the ground above their hiding place, you could even hear a gurgling sound made by the worms moving quickly away from source of disturbance.

Giant Gippsland Earthworm is listed as endangered species as its natural habitat is disturbed by human settlement. Another situation that accounts for the reduction of the species is their super slow developmental rate and low reproduction rate. After mating, the earthworm will produce one egg sac (about 7cm) which will take up 1year to incubate and hatch. In the egg sac, there is only one baby worm, and it will take years to mature. When hatch, the baby is already 20cm in length.

Do you have the answer now?

Yes, the Giant Gippsland Earthworm normally can grow up to 200cm in length. The longest recorded length is 400cm! Don't freak out if you ever have the chance to witness one, this earthworm is absolutely harmless.

Beverley Van Praagh holding a Giant Gippsland Earthwrom during a Museum Victoria fieldtrip c. 1980. Photographer: Rodney Start / Source: Museum Victoria

Ebola Virus

Ebola virus is one of the deadliest viruses in the world, and a cure for which has not yet been discovered. Ebola virus infection is called Ebola hemorrhagic fever (Ebola HF). The virus is named after the Ebola River where the first case of the disease had occurred.

Eboli virus

After the virus infection, there is an incubation period of about 2 to 20 days before the symptoms start to show. At the beginning, an infected person will have fever, muscle aches, headache, weakness, which then followed by diarrhea, vomiting. As the Ebola virus targets the endothelium inside the body, blood vessel walls, organs linings, digestive tract linings will all be damaged from the infection eventually. As a result, patients start to bleed internally and externally.

If a person is detected to have Ebola virus infection, the individual has to be isolated, as Ebola is a highly contagious virus. Among humans, Ebola virus can be transmitted from infected patients to people simply by contacts of body part. (body fluids, skin, mucous membrane) Although this disease is highly transmissible, contacting patients in early stage may not be infected.

To date, there is still no cure for Ebola HF. Medications are given to patients to ease their symptoms. The patients have to depend on their immune systems to fight against the deadly virus. The mortality rate for the disease can be up to 89%, whereby most of the patients die from organs failure.

Bone Eating Worm - Osedax

I have come across some interesting articles on the Bone eating worm, and I would like to share with you guys.

This genus with the name of 'Osedax' was discovered in Febrary 2002 at Monterey Bay, Carlifornia. The species was first discovered on decaying whale and it was named after its habit of feeding on bones of animals.

Osedax

This bone eating worm is approximately 1 to 2cm in length. It has pinkish, feathery plumes that act as gills to enable Osedax to acquire oxygen under the sea. The worm itself does not have mouth and stomach, thus it has to rely on a type of bacteria which breaks down fats inside the bone and transfer the nutrients to the worm.

Female worm

Male worm

In the case of mosquitoes, only females suck blood; for this bone eating worm, only the females eat bone. Then, where do the males go?

The most amazing part about the worms is their reproductive system. Grown up females can be around 2cm in sizes, while the males are of microscopic sizes. The males live inside the females! The females and males differ in morphology in an extreme way, the females resemble a flower, while the males' appearance do not change much after larva stage. Sometimes, about 50 to 100 males are living inside one female worm, next to the oviduct. The sperms compete to fertilize the eggs, which will be released at the pinkish feathery top of the female worms.

Gross Human Parasitic Worms III - Roundworms

In the previous post, I have mentioned one of the parasites in human's digestive tract, the Tapeworm. In this post, another kind of human parasite, Roundworm, will be discussed.

Ascaris is a type of parasitic worm known as the Giant intestinal roundworm. This type of parasite infects human living in areas with poor sanitation. Roundworm is the most common type of human parasites worldwide, and its infection is named Ascariasis.

Roundworms live in the small intestines. The females can grow up to 40cm in length, weighing 9g and produce over 200,000 eggs everyday!

When Roundworm eggs are ingested, they will hatch in the intestines and burrow through the intestine walls. After that, they make their way to the heart, the lungs and finally break out into the alveoli as shown in the diagram below.

If large amounts of roundworms accumulate in the body, it will result in the blockage of intestinal tracts. At this stage, patients will feel intense abdominal pain. To examine if a person is infected with roundworm, stool sample can be send to examine and suspected cases can undergo an abdominal X-ray. In some cases where the blockage of intestine is too severe, surgery is required to get rid of the worms.

For more information of roundworms in your pets, check out: Roundworms in Pets

Gross Human Parasitic Worms II - Tapeworms

For as long as human exists on the Earth, there are many organisms that feed off, reside in, seek shelter from the human body.

In this post, the most common type of parasitic worm that reside in the digestive tract of a human. The tapeworm.

Tapeworms larva can be ingested by eating uncooked or undercooked meat. After the larvae arrive at the intestines, they will start to grow into adult tapeworms that can be as long as 30m (fish tapeworm), 40m (beef tapeworm)and 120m (some other species of tapeworm)!

And what's the most horrible part? When a person has tapeworm infection, there will be definitely more than one of those in the digestive tract. These intestine intruders, when at adult stage, lay millions of eggs each day! Just imagine that, the whole intestines of yours filled with those slippery wrigglers, it will sure send chills down your spine.

How does the tapeworm attach to the intestines?

Tapeworms have sharp hooks on one side of theirs heads. Those hooks drill into the lining of the intestines and simply provide anchor for the tapeworms.

Tapeworms are usually found on meat products, thus high protein diets are not good for a healthy life. Diet high in fiber is a good prevention against these disgusting worms, as dietary fiber promotes regular bowel and clears off these parasites from the intestine.

Blue Skin Disorder

When you first see Paul Karason, you may think that he is putting up lots of make up to have the “look”, well, he is definitely not. The 57-year-pld Paul Karason has the appearance of every ordinary middle aged man, except for his distinct skin color. And yes, he is all blue, literally.

The-Blue-Man, Paul Karason. 

Karason’s condition is the result of silver poisoning, with the medical name Argyria. Karason has had bad arthritis problem on his shoulders, to ease the pain he started taking *colloidal silver. The arthritis was cured along with a side effect which gradually changed his skin color till what he looks like today. The color changed was so gradual that even Karason himself did not discover it in the first place.

Argyria is caused by excessive exposure to silver be it through contacts, ingestions or inhalation. Long term of exposure will result in the discoloration of skin. This symptom is very hard to treat once develops. Other than the blue skin, severe complications may be the consequences of continued exposure to silver, such as the paralysis of respiratory system which could be fatal.

Karason's case is induced by taking colloidal silver, there are people who are born with blue skin naturally!

They were the family of Fugates. The ancester of this blue skin family was Martin Fugate who settled near Kentucky in 1800, after several generations, his descendants still appear to have blue skin. This blue skin condition remained active for over 1 century.

Family of Fugates, 1800s.

The Fugates suffer from a kind of rare disorder where they have a missing enzyme to convert methemoglobin into haemoglobin, and the medical term for this disorder is called Methemoglobinemia. Methemoglobin (blue in color) is a form of haemoglobin that does not bind to oxygen, when exist in high level in a person, the body is deprived of adequate supply of oxygen. As a result, the skin turn blue or purplish in color.

For the Fugates, their heriditary methemoglobinemia is caused by a reccessive gene. With this gene, the body fails to produce a kind of enzyme named cytochrome b5-reductase, in which its role is to convert methemoglobin back to haemoglobin in red blood cells.

Methylene blue is one of the medicines that is used to treat this conditon. Another medicine that can be used to treat this disorder is ascorbic acid.

*Colloidal silver is a liquid suspension of microscopic particles of silver.

Swine flu - The latest Epidemic

Influenza A, H1N1, commonly known as Swine flu, was first identified in April 2009. After the infection, this virus can spread from an infected person to other people, triggering the latest epidemic.

First of all, what is a ‘Swine flu virus’?

Swine flu virus is found to have a mixture of the genetics of 4 strains of influenza A virus subtype H1N1, the Human influenza (which causes flu in human), Avian influenza (causes flu in birds), and 2 types of Swine influenza (cause flu in pigs). However, preliminary analysis from scientists suggested that this H1N1 virus was originated from pigs.

H1N1 virus

Symptoms?

People who are infected by the Swine flu virus have a very wide range of symptoms, such as fever, cough, sore throat, headache, chills, runny nose etc, which is very similar to common flu. The symptoms may seem to be mild; however complications could lead to severe cases. This airborne strain of virus can be spread from person to person easily through sneezes from infected people. Incubation period from infection to the showing of symptoms ranged from 2 to 7 days.

Up to date, there is still no vaccine available to cure the illness. Medications are given to soothe the symptoms the virus inflicted.

To combat this new strain of virus, personal hygiene is the key prevention. As this is an airborne virus, avoid crowded areas and wear surgical masks when necessary. There is no reason to avoid eating pork because this new strain of virus is called ‘Swine flu”. H1N1 virus is not transmissible from pork products to human.

H1N1 virus

Gross Human Parasites I - The Guinea Worms

Guinea worm is the common name for Dracunculiasis, which thrives in some of the third world countries where clean water supply is not available.

If this worm is new to you, you may start to wonder what does the worm look like?

The answer is: Guinea worm looks exactly like a spaghetti noodle at mature stage (sorry to spaghetti lovers ) It can grow up to more than 90cm in length.

How do people get infected?

Well, at places where clean water is not accessible, people can get infected while drinking stagnant water that hosts tiny water flea that carry the larvae of Guinea worm. Once inside the stomach, the larvae take 1 year to mature and pierce through the walls of intestines to mate. The males will die after mating where the female worms burrow into the deeper connective tissues and attempt to leave the human host (usually through the lower limbs).

At this stage, as the Guinea worms try to burrow their ways out of the human hosts, painful blisters are formed on the human skin. The pain is excruciating with a burning sensation, human hosts often soak their limbs in cold water to ease the pain.

Once the blister or open-sore submerge into water, the female Guinea worms will take their chance and release thousands of larvae. The water flea will consume the larvae, and another cycle will begin.

Currently, there is no cure for Guinea worm disease. To remove the Guinea worm from a human host, one must wrap the worm in a stick once the worm emerges from the skin. Then, slowly, bits by bits, wound the worm around the stick by pulling the worm out of the skin. The whole process is long and painful, sometimes it might take more than 1 month just to extract the worm out of the body. (the worm is very long and is buried deep in the connective tissue)

I dare you to read this post while eating spaghetti. *EviL grin* 

You may NEVER want this 'Tongue' - Cymothoa exigua

At the first sight, many people may find this little parasite adorable (or is just me?). In the above image, Cymothoa exigua (yes, this is the creature's scientific name), looked exactly harmless, so tiny and cowardly hiding in the mouth of a fish.

However, in the view point of the host, this is totally NOT a pleasant experience. So, what harm can the little creature inflicts?

Guess it?

Cymothoa exigua is the first known parasite that replaces hosts' body parts upon parasiting. In this case, is the poor fish's tongue.

This little creature enters a fish mouth through the gills. Discovers its way to the tougue and attaches itself to the base of the tongue. After that, it happily sucks blood from the veins on the tongue using claws on its 3 pairs of legs at the front.

A fully grown Cymothoa exigua can be up to 3 to 4cm in length. Imagine the amount of blood it will need (also think of the size of the tongue of the fish). Eventually, the tongue withers due to lack of supply of blood and shrink till it loses its original function.

Cymothoa exigua is not that cruel to let the fish carry on its life without a tongue. As a result, the little parasite replaces itself as the tongue of the fish by attaching to the muscles of the tongue stub. Interestingly, the fish can freely use its "new tongue" at its control.

In the mean while, Cymothoa exigua survives by either the blood of the fish or the mucus of the fish. Other than having a whole new tongue, the creature does not inflict any other damage to the host fish. An extra tongue, anyone?