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April 2, 2009 : Cordyceps sp.
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Plant Family / Families: Clavicipitaceae
Scientific Name and Author: Cordyceps sp.
Name Location: Singapore
Thank you to San of the UBC Botanical Garden Forums for sharing today's photograph and entertaining write-up with us (original thread posted here). San also authors a weblog, Hort Log -- Horticulture in the Far East; it contains many fascinating posts about both horticulture and nature in Singapore.
San writes:
Death at Calamus Avenue
A gruesome murder along the jungle trail...
Synopsis of crime: The accused is a species of Cordyceps, a parasitic fungus that had infected a Euglossa bee some days/weeks back. Slowly, its mycelial filaments had spread into the internal organs and sucked the bee dry. But the depleted zombie bee must complete one last act before it was allowed to rest in peace. By not ingesting the vital muscles for movement and manipulating the nervous system of its host, the fungus drove the bee to stagger towards the direction of bright light, in this case an elevated stem of a rattan (Calamus sp.), before pulling the final trigger, destroying the brain and locking its host eternally in a characteristic rigor mortis with limbs and wings outstretched. Its fruiting bodies then sprout from the cadaver as shown in the photo, and are unhindered and free to release the spores at a high and exposed location to cause greatest distribution of its progeny.
Verdict: Guilty of murder and body snatching.
Daniel adds: According to Wikipedia, approximately four hundred species of Cordyceps have been described, primarily from eastern Asia. All members of the genus are entomopathogenic, and some have been used as biological control agents.
For additional photographs of Cordyceps and related fungi, you can visit the Cordyceps site. And, for those of you who prefer video, the BBC has posted this clip from The Plant Earth: Cordyceps: attack of the killer fungi (sorry, can't embed this one).
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at April 2, 2009 9:54 AM
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Comments
Posted by: Jackie at April 2, 2009 10:53 AM
Yikes! Absolutely extraordinary. Many thanks, San, it is disturbing to know a fungus can manipulate anything's (!) nervous system.
Posted by: Melinde at April 2, 2009 11:05 AM
This both terrifies and fascinates me! I had bad dreams after watching the Cordyceps part of Planet Earth, thanks Daniel, no sleep for me tonight either ;)
Posted by: Meighan at April 2, 2009 11:07 AM
(gulp!) Wow!
Posted by: Lynne at April 2, 2009 11:15 AM
Curiouser and curiouser!
Posted by: Meg Bernstein at April 2, 2009 11:37 AM
Okay, this freaks me out!
Posted by: Barbara at April 2, 2009 11:50 AM
Awesome! Er, I mean, awful! Seriously, fascinating. I've enjoyed this site on an extracurricular basis for a while, & now you've just helped me with my homework, too - I'm writing a term paper on parasite-mediated changes in host animal behavior. There's some crazy ones out there, but this is the weirdest yet. (& I get to use the term "fruiting bodies"!)
Posted by: mountain laurel at April 2, 2009 11:51 AM
Outstading! I thought when I saw my email this was going to be a species of mushroom....Makes me VERY glad I'm not a bug...lol
Posted by: C.Wick at April 2, 2009 12:05 PM
Aren't Toxoplasma spp. supposed to disinhibit fear in rodents, through brain parasitisation, thereby ensuring that predators will have a better chance of ingesting and passing on the T'plasma? Not too different...
Posted by: Alex Knisely at April 2, 2009 12:17 PM
Whoooooooo ... I scared! Thanks for the drama - I'll share it with my sons who love ghoulie stories ... and to think this is non-fiction!
Posted by: Jacqueline at April 2, 2009 12:25 PM
Not just a fascinating subject, but a fantastic photo!
Thank you so much for sharing.
Posted by: Elizabeth Revell at April 2, 2009 12:33 PM
Isn't this similar to the way progeny are dispersed in the movie(s) -"Alien" ?
Posted by: karen at April 2, 2009 2:05 PM
yuch, I love it!
Posted by: Tracey at April 2, 2009 2:47 PM
Nature rocks!
Posted by: Katy S at April 2, 2009 3:20 PM
I forget all the details, but in an article about how "Parasites Rule the World" one parasite with a complex life cycle (i.e. a series of different hosts) at one stage infects an insect larva. As it's final act in that host the parasite causes the larva's head to swell and turn bright red, then makes the larva climb to the top of a nearby plant and wave it's head around to attract the attention of the next host, a bird, which swoops down and eats the larva.
There's another parasite that spends part of it's life cycle in a fish, and another part in the eye of a dragonfly.
Posted by: Eric Simpson at April 2, 2009 3:56 PM
Fascinating.Perhaps some humans are actually being controlled by a subtle parasite.This would explain the behavior of a former president.
Posted by: Rick at April 2, 2009 4:58 PM
i was going to rent a horror movie
san's page is just fine the photos are great
nature is as nature is
Posted by: elizabeth a airhart at April 2, 2009 5:01 PM
As delicious as it might be, I'd prefer if comments on particular politicians (or other famous people) were kept to a minimum. Plenty of other places on the web to talk politics!
Posted by: Daniel Mosquin 
at April 2, 2009 5:02 PM
Alex, you are correct. Here is one of the more famous videos of a toxoplasmosis-infected rat:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ikm3o5hDks
Rats and mice have a strong instinctual fear of felines. However, the life cycle of toxoplasmosis must be completed inside the gut of a cat. The parasite reprograms the rat's brain and removes the fear of cats. In the wild this would result in the mouse being quickly eaten, but modern life has changed that a bit.
BTW, over 50% of Americans are infected with toxoplasmosis and are asymptomatic.
Posted by: Eric in SF at April 2, 2009 6:06 PM
Well the parasitic fungus helps us fight parasitic cancers. Cordyceps (C. sinensis) is one of the traditional ingredients in fu zheng, cancer treatments in Chinese herbal medicine. Sweet, warm, moist and slightly acrid, it nourishes the lung and the kidney system, increases sperm production and increases libido. It raises the platelet and erythroid levels, increases macrophage activity and NK cells. It helps increase stamina, is an adaptogen that stimulates the immune system and HPA axis, and in TCM terms stimulates the kidney yin and yang after a long debilitating illness or heavy workouts.
Posted by: Karen Vaughan at April 2, 2009 11:22 PM
Hello, just wanted to add that this is my favourite BPotD so far, although I hope you fix the picture part in the Widget soon (as in showing more than just the upper fraction of the picture).
Posted by: Hugo G. at April 3, 2009 12:20 AM
The 'stuff' people know! I had no idea on this, but it's what I love about looking at your emails each day, the amount you learn from the initial post is great but the combined knowledge of everyone else that comes in after just astounds me! Thanks to everyone for the new things I have learnt from this post.
Posted by: David Sutton at April 3, 2009 12:37 AM
Dang this fungus is so crazy!!! i wounder if it can attack humans. it would be a great reaserch paper
Posted by: jimbob at April 16, 2009 11:26 AM
Please share your comments about the photograph(s) and accompanying write-up. Telling a story about the subject of the photograph(s) is also much appreciated! If you have a gardening question, the best place to ask is on the UBC Botanical Garden Forums. Thank you!
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Botany Photo of the Day is a project of the UBC Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research, located in Vancouver, British Columbia Canada. UBC BGCPR is a department of the Faculty of Land and Food Systems within The University of British Columbia.
ACK! The stuff nightmares are made of! (Help meeeee!) But what a shot!