Diary of a Mad Natural Historian

Updated.

Are the intarwebs great or what? Last night I watched - live - a dissection of a giant squid from the other side of the world. The archived video stream can be found here.

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h/t ectoplasmosis

Steve posted recently about overharvest of a Tibetan medicinal fungus - when I clicked through and read the LA Times article, the scientific name of the fungus rang a bell. “Cordyceps,” says I. “Isn’t that the genus of the mind control fungus?” Off to Wikipedia to verify that, yes, indeed, Cordyceps unilateralis changes the behavior of it’s ant host.

Cordyceps unilateralis is a species of entomopathogenic fungus that infects and alters the behavior of ants in order to ensure the widespread distribution of its spores. The spores enter the body of the insect through its spiracles, where they begin to consume the non-vital soft tissues. When the fungus is ready to spore, its mycelia enter the ant’s brain and change how it perceives pheromones, causing the insect to climb to the top of a plant and use its mandibles to secure itself to the stem. The fungus then kills the ant, and the fruiting bodies of C. unilateralis grow from its head and explode, releasing the spores. This process takes 4 to 10 days.*

No similar activity was mentioned for Cordyceps sinensis (the Tibetan vegetable caterpillar), but that won’t stop me from speculating. I have 2 hypotheses:

• The Tibetans will wreak a terrible revenge on the Han people during the Beijing Olympics.  As the Chinese synchronized divers are ready to capture a gold medal, the combination of vegetable caterpillar supplements, humidity in the diving venue and height of the platform will combine to cause the C. sinensis to fruit. Having jumped species successfully, Beijing will be overrun with fungus zombies.
• Same basic scenario, but it’s the Mi-Go using a fungal vector to take over the planet. I’m agnostic as to whether our brains will be canned and shipped to Pluto - maybe we’ll all just merge into a huge mycelium-mind.

Click here or on the picture below to see more.

Goodbye, Boone. Whenever his name is mentioned, we’ll always remember, “That Boone, he was a good ol’ dog.”

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He was a good companion in the grouse woods and around town; a wonderful, happy, stubborn, birdy, goofy shorthair. He leaves an empty spot by the wood stove and in my heart.

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Updated.

I just put up a new project page to document some work on a brackish water Southeast Asian mangrove biotope-ish aquarium.  It’ll always be available from the ‘Pages’ section in the right margin (way down). Not sure how I’ll indicate updates - maybe just more miniposts like this…

Another good one from the Gray Lady: Bacon a Hard Way - hunting feral hogs in East Texas.

Celebrate by viewing Mr.YipYop’s lovely pigeon portraits.

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h/t on the special day to Reid and h/t for the portraits to @strangehours via tweet.

I’m starting to get ready for a weekend trip the Designer and I are taking to the North American Amphibian Conference. As if to spur me on, peakay posted plates from the ‘Metamorphosibus Insectorum Surinamensium’.

Here’s a detail (the canonical birdeater) from a handcolored plate in an edition he links to - click to see the whole thing.

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I’m going to try a little moblogging from the road, but having fun at the conference is the first priority, so it may be Sunday or Monday before things start to appear here or on my Flickrsteam.