In The Last of Usof which HBO broadcast the first episode of season 2 Sunday April 13, the characters embodied by Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey try to survive on a planet earth decimated by the cordycepts, mushroom which transforms humans into zombies. In reality, if this parasite does exist, it fortunately contaminates only insects and certain animals.
On the other hand, in the series and the video games of which it is inspired, an evolution of the strain of the cordyceps ends up making the parasite transmitted to the human being, which quickly transforms our world into no man’s land Ultra dangerous, where surviving is a subject of permanent concern. While recalling that this aspect is purely fictional, New Atlas takes the opportunity to identify some parasites of real life whose simple existence can also be enough to freeze blood.
The Cordyceps, “The Last of Us” real version
It all starts with a recall of the incredible misdeeds of the cordycers, or “unilateralis ophiocordyceps”, whose spores fix on the exoskeleton of the carpenter antosk, which generally live in the peaks of large trees. When these have the misfortune to venture to the ground of certain forests, they can cross the fungus, which then penetrates their nervous system. Taken of convulsions, they then lose control of their body.
At the same time, their brain of infected ants remains intact, which suggests that their consciousness is completely preserved. We imagine the nightmare: they cannot defend themselves against the ravages of the cordycepts, which ends up devouring them from the inside. In a few days, a stem then sprang from the head of the ant, opening to release new spores, launching a new cycle of infection of the ants present in the surroundings. An endless nightmare.
The Little Liver’s Douve, Machiavellian Parasite Nocturne
Other parasites would also make great Hollywood stars, such as the liver moat, a worm that loves nothing as long as being devoured by snails. Inside her host, she turns into a parasitic larva, before being ejected by the gastropod when he begins to salivate to expel him. Then comes the time to access a second host: when an ant that passes by sucks the drool ball sown by the snail, she actually signs her death stop.
Once ingested by the ant, the parasites are organized: all take refuge in its intestine, with the exception of one, which goes towards a heap of nerves located near the neck of the insect, which it uses as reins allowing to direct it. Objective: to place the ant on a bit of grass, which will soon be swallowed by a sheep or a cow, whose body is a dream place for this parasite: this is where it likes to reproduce.
But the action of La Douve is even more Machiavellian: as it knows that leaving the ant in full sun all day would kill both the host and the parasite, so it does not exhibit it in the middle of the night. If, in the morning, the ant and its strand of grass were not devoured, the worm loose the reins and the ant can then return home, haggard. Then, at nightfall, the parasite regained control … and so on until its mission succeeds. When this is the case, the Duve that drives dies at the same time as the ant, but the others can quietly settle inside the sheep and the cow that swallowed them.
The Ténia which makes ants lazy (therefore vulnerable)
Definitely, it is really not good to be an ant. The workers of the species “Temnothorax Nylanderi”, whose lifespan is a few weeks or months, are gladly satisfied with this short existence, but a Ténia called “Anomotaenia Brevis” is likely to prolong their lives by a few years – just twenty. But necessarily, this (almost) eternal youth has a price … paid by others.
Contaminated ants live as long as their queens and are also treated as such by their sisters, because they emit different chemical signals which allow them to be recognized. Overwhelmed by so many alleged queens to pamper, the uninfected workers are exhausted in the task, are more stressed and die younger than expected, which harms the whole colony.
The objective of parasitic worms has been identified: by transforming their hostesses into real assisted, supporters of the slightest effort, they ensure that they will be unable to escape when peaks will try to eat them. However, the bowels of these birds constitute the place of predilection of the Ténia, which therefore gives itself all the odds to finish there as quickly as possible.
The wasp and the free house
Some spiders may also be victims of a parasitage in good standing. In this case, it is often the “polysphincta” wasps that are at work, with a very clear objective: to use the arachnids, renowned for their ability to build houses, to be built the most opulent of the homes. For this, they lay on the back of weavers’s spiders. At hatching, the larva bites its host and then begins to feed on the fluids it contains.
Little by little, the larva begins to control the behavior of the spider-vatilately with the help of hormones which it injects itself-and encourages it to build another type of canvas than that which it is used to weaving. In accordance with the desire of the wasp, she built a small cocoon. Then, once her work is completed, she has the joy of being devoured by the larva, which then moved to her new nest.
