The wonderful world of insects

https://delanceyplace.com/view-archives.php?3973

by overwhelm • 7 years ago

43 14 7 years ago

low_code• 7 years ago

To borrow a line from Spock: 'Fascinating...'

proc02• 7 years ago

"The big question here is how the wasp mother can control the ladybug, transforming her into a zombie babysitter... The answer is that the wasp mother injects the ladybug not just with the egg but also with a virus. "

This strengthens my belief that insects are like tiny little robots.

AnIdiotOnTheNet• 7 years ago

Maybe, but that just makes us bigger, more complicated robots because we too have our behavior influenced by parasites and viruses.

proc02• 7 years ago

Imagine a virus that makes you switch careers, heh.

baxtr• 7 years ago

I remember to have read somewhere that viruses make you sneeze so that they can proliferate. But maybe that's just BS....

gwern3• 7 years ago

The really interesting question is why don't we see these amazingly detailed and precise parasitic mechanisms elsewhere, like in mammals? Are we just doing a terrible job of finding them, or is there something more interesting going on? Del Giudice recently published a paper arguing that the baroque complexity of non-insect nervous systems may in part be an anti-parasite mechanism, by making it too hard for a distributed group of small simple parasites to find hacks: "Invisible Designers: Brain Evolution Through the Lens of Parasite Manipulation" https://www.gwern.net/docs/genetics/selection/2019-delguidic... , Del Giudice 2019 (discussion: https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/08/19/maybe-your-zoloft-stop... ).

woliveirajr• 7 years ago

Toxoplasmosis is (not) your friend here [0]

[0] https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/toxoplasmosis...

samstave2• 7 years ago

What if Psychopathy is a Virus?

videogreg93• 7 years ago

Has anyone read this book? I've been having a craving these days for books on animals, having just finished "The Rise and Fall of Dinosaurs", and this looks pretty good.

11235813213455• 7 years ago

Some tiny wasps are used for pest control in farms, natural and clean way

jcims• 7 years ago

Lots of underrated beauty in the insect world as well. Check out the last series of images in this video about manual focus stacking for short dof shots - https://youtu.be/2GmQ2Hj9WOs?t=198

Another one from the same guy, have to poke around - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmMcCjEU68Y

Lots more of these kinds of vids on youtube of course...

The wonderful world of insects

Related Stories