{"id":14823,"date":"2018-03-19T08:18:03","date_gmt":"2018-03-19T13:18:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/?p=14823"},"modified":"2018-03-19T08:18:03","modified_gmt":"2018-03-19T13:18:03","slug":"glad-i-wasnt-born-an-ant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2018\/03\/19\/glad-i-wasnt-born-an-ant\/","title":{"rendered":"Glad I Wasn&#8217;t Born An Ant"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Put this in the <em>Nature is Cruel<\/em> book. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newscientist.com\/article\/mg23731674-000-newly-discovered-fungi-turn-luckless-ants-into-kamikaze-zombies\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">From<\/a> <em><strong>NewScientist<\/strong><\/em> (3 March 2018, paywall):<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Zombie ant fungi are parasites that are mostly found in tropical forests. Once inside its host, such a fungus alters the ant\u2019s behaviour in ways that favour its own reproduction, for example by compelling the ant to seek a place other ants are likely to pass. The fungus then sprouts a long stalk, sometimes right through the back of the ant\u2019s head. Infectious spores bloom at the end, making it easier for the fungus to brush onto another ant.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBesides their beauty, it\u2019s striking how these fungi evolved and are so well adapted morphologically and ecologically to infect their hosts,\u201d says Jo\u00e3o Ara\u00e3jo at Pennsylvania State University.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Nature may be endlessly inventive, but the byproduct seems to be a particularly vibrant form of the macabre.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Put this in the Nature is Cruel book. From NewScientist (3 March 2018, paywall): Zombie ant fungi are parasites that are mostly found in tropical forests. Once inside its host, such a fungus alters the ant\u2019s behaviour in ways that favour its own reproduction, for example by compelling the ant \u2026 <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2018\/03\/19\/glad-i-wasnt-born-an-ant\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14823"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14824,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14823\/revisions\/14824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}