A mantis wandered to the river and jumped into the water when it saw it. What's going on? Why can't you think about it so hard?
In fact, it can no longer control its own behavior. If you continue to look down, you will find that after the mantis enters the water, a small worm slowly drills out of its body. When it comes out completely, it looks bigger than the mantis, which makes people feel goosebumps. This is the initiator of the iron worm, which is A very common parasite ,
, grows and matures in the body of a mantis and needs to reproduce in the water, so it will "control" it to dive. Of course, it is impossible for such a large insect to directly enter the body of a mantis. This When the thing is still a larvae, there is a high probability that it will be eaten by the larvae of caddisfly , but it will not have any impact. The two develop peacefully. However, after the caddisfly turns into an adult, there is a high probability that it will be preyed on by the mantis. This is how the ironworm enters the host's body,
Not only that, if you prey on caddisflies carrying iron worms many times, they will also be parasitized by multiple iron worms. After they successfully enter the host's body, they will absorb nutrients. Most of the parasitized mantises are malnourished. So how does it control the mantis?
Why does a mantis parasitized by iron worms actively seek water? Do iron worms really have the ability to "control" other organisms? In real life, it is naturally impossible to have the kind of control ability seen in literary and artistic works, but the real reason is still just a hypothesis. The first one is that the iron worm will absorb the water in the mantis body, and after it matures, it will secrete a protein that makes the host feel thirsty. The second hypothesis is that the iron worm affects the host's nerves and uses its phototaxis to move it toward the water surface that reflects light. This is actually possible. After all, mantises are more sensitive to light.
The third hypothesis is that the ironworm secretes a special substance that can mix into the nervous system of the host, affect the control of the body by the mantis, and then issue orders, ultimately controlling the behavior of the host. Of course, these are still hypotheses, with too many loopholes and conflicts, but I believe that with the development of the times, one day the truth of this mystery will be revealed. Having said that, have you ever seen the movie "Invasion of the Ironworm", in which people died due to infection with the ironworm? What is the real situation? Can you really control humans?
Ironworm can "control" a mantis to jump into a river, but can it "control" humans? In the movie "Invasion of Ironworms", there is a mutated ironworm that causes humans to be sucked dry and die. However, there is a lot of artistic processing involved. Ironworms are not enough to "control" mice, let alone humans, but they can indeed infect humans, but the cases are rare. Currently, there are only There are records in 14 countries, and my country has a large population base and there have been relevant reports. Most patients eat raw snails and insects, and are exposed to water sources containing iron worms. Symptoms such as diarrhea and abdominal pain will occur after infection. Having said that, there are many parasites similar to iron worms in the world,
For example, the double-disc fluke is the one that parasitizes the snail . It can make the host attract birds, thereby spreading the eggs through bird droppings. From the appearance, it looks like the eyes of a snail. There is a rainbow maggot hidden inside the handle, which looks super disgusting. In addition to this kind of animals, even fungi have similar abilities. For example, the zombie fungus in South America infects ants, then controls it to go near the nest, and finally releases spores to infect the next ant. At least this is much better than the double-disc fluke.
