Skip to main content

The Amazon Rainforest series-part 4: The diligent population checker: The killer fungus

Image
By
Hi everyone,

Today we have a very special post for you. This is our very first guest blogging post. Casandra Chikanele has written an amazing post about the Amazon rainforest. This post is therefore the 4th part in the Amazon rainforest series. Enjoy!
Your Green World TeamšŸ’š



The Amazon rainforest is a diverse and wildlife intense site. Home to thousands of species of animals, insects, reptiles, and all living forms including plants and microbial entities. 1/3 of all species live in this cradle of life. About 2.5 million species of ants, one thousand three hundred species of birds, four hundred and thirty species of mammals, and many more.
This environment houses quite a numerous amount of living things, predators and prey, families, and bachelors. A place with such a diverse ecosystem, where new offspring is constantly brought forth. Some species reproduce in little numbers, while others reproduce in hundreds or thousands every few weeks. It is easy to think the forest can become overpopulated just like the human section.


The reproductive cycle of all animals differs, most animals give birth in small numbers and less frequently than some. The insect world is more generous in its reproduction, with them laying hundreds of eggs at a time, especially with ants where there are about 8 million ants per hectare in the Amazon rainforest. These insects invade every avenue of the forest from the tree tops to the forest floor and even underground.

In their numerous sizes, they work hard to keep their already mighty colony and precious monarch safe. In their large numbers, they search for food, stripping an entire section of a tress half bare if not the entirety by the time they are done. Ants consume more vegetation than any other creature in the forest. And protecting whatever they claim as theirs with all force. As it has been recorded that ants attack way larger insects in large numbers by overwhelming and even killing them.

The insects are the most successful kingdom in the Amazon rainforest, with their numbers booming, it is quite easy to think they can take over the forest, swarming all over, getting an upper hand in the ecosystem, and threatening other species.


But why hasn’t this happened.?

So typical of nature to have everything in check. Nature has numerous techniques and technologies put in place to ensure orderliness and balance, trees, forests, mangroves, moorlands, oceans, and clouds. All these are more than just beautiful landscapes. They are in fact nature's technology to ensure the balance is kept; their beauty is just a physical image, and they are much more than that. This is why the chaos of climate change is happening due to humans' involvement in tampering with nature's technology.

As nature has it, no one species can have an upper hand in the forest, not even these fast-growing, hardworking insect colonies. The more numerous the insects are, the larger the colonies grow, and the more likely they will cease to exist. This is made possible by an insect infecting parasitic fungi called cordyceps.


Now generally ants are familiar with fungi, they in fact fetch leaves that they use to cultivate their fungi farm, which they feed to their larvae; they also have antibiotic saliva that they use to keep their farm infection free.
The ants who are social animals have put in place social immunity, which is a set of procedures they use to prevent any disease from the colony. They groom each other with their antibiotic saliva, any individuals that show signs of illness are taken far away from the colony and sometimes killed to avoid infecting others, and dead ants are removed immediately before any damage ensues. Even in their little fungi farm, the ants that tend to the fungi, after cleaning up the farm and removing garbage do not come in contact with the queen or the fungus to avoid any infection harming the colony. This strict social immunity is what keeps the ants' infection free.

But the cordyceps manipulates its way around this ant’s security. How?

The cordyceps is a parasitic fungus that infects insects. It infects them, takes control of their body and mind, and manipulates them. And before the ant dies, the fungi manipulate the infected ant to climb high up a tree, about 25 centimeters above the ground and then cause the ant to grip tightly using its mandible against a stem, this is known as the death grip. And a couple of hours later the ant dies.

But how does this favor the cordyceps fungus?

The fungus causes the ants to go 25cm above the ground when the sun is highest and they grip the underside of the leaf. This height and time provide the optimal temperature and humidity for the fungus to erupt and disperse. Gripping the underside of the leaf will protect the fungi from rain and UV rays; until when night time comes and the spores can disperse when the temperature is cooler.

Why do the fungi not just manipulate the ant to move into the colony and die there and easily disperse its spores?

Well, any ant found sick, misbehaving, or infected will be killed or/and taken far away from the colony where it cannot infect others,


so causing the ant to move out on its own, will better its chances of infecting the colony. The ant moves away from the colony but not too far, just a few meters so that the colony is still within reach, and at a height that can increase far dispersion. So that when the spores are finally released, they can reach the colony and attach to a new host.
And for some other insects, it causes them to become more energetic and to find a mate quickly to ensure dispersion.

This fungus is believed to have been around for thousands of years and to have adapted to conditions and even changed its prey over time. In tropical forests where they are few leaves to grip on, the fungi have been observed to cause their victims to grip on twigs and bark.
The presence of these fungi ensures that no one species dominates, as it infects largely populated colonies of ants, beetles, praying mantis, grasshoppers, and other insects. The balance of the ecosystem is restored.


The Amazon has numerous activities and secrets that unfold within it. And new species are found as the sun spotlights them every setting day.


Casandra Chikanele is a freelance writer whose niche is wildlife and the environment. She is also passionate about nature. For more info, click here.


Sources:


Images:
Collage: This image, owned by Robyn Jay (on flickr.com), is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
A large gathering of ants: This image, owned by Ingrid V Taylar (on flickr.com), is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0
Ant infected by cordyceps fungus: This image, owned by Bernard DUPONT (on flickr.com), is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Ants fighting: This image, owned by Matt Francey (on flickr.com), is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.
Sunlight on water: This image is owned by Arnie Chou on pexels.com.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

10 Animals on the edge of extinction, You did not know about no.1 - Yangtze Finless Porpoise

By Anonymous
The first animal of this series is the Yangtze finless porpoise, a dolphin living in fresh water in southern China in the Yangtze river. It is one of the very few dolphins living in fresh water and the only species left in the Yangtze river. Unfortunately, the porpoise is facing extinction. What is it? The Yangtze finless porpoise is a dolphin species living in the Yangtze River in southern China. It is one of the very few dolphin species that live in freshwater, and the only one that survived in the Yangtze river after the Baiji Dolphin was declared functionally extinct in 2006. It characteristically is about 2 meters long, has no fins -as the name suggests- and no beak. Its mouth however is curved upwards like a smile, giving the Porpoise and cute and friendly face. It feeds on small fish, crustaceans and molluscs. Sadly, the Yangtze finless Porpoise is considered "critically endangered" as there are only about 1000 of them left.  Why i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Why Didn't People Act Sooner On The Climate Crisis?

By
Hi Everyone! Welcome back to Green World, where today I wanted to talk about why people didn't act sooner about the climate crisis , when we have known about this issue for decades. I asked myself this too, and it wasn't until I read the chapter about it in Greta Thunberg's book that I started to understand the reasons behind why action was not taken sooner, and why this crisis has been allowed to escalate as far as it has. As someone who has only been on the planet for 14 years, a part of me does resent people around long before I was for not having acted on an issue that they knew would continue to affect people around the world. They knew it was not an issue that would go away, so why didn't they act, when it was easier to do so? Changing our now very ingrained habits is so difficult, whereas fifty years ago, ways of life could have been more easily influenced. Well, there are a few reasons why action was not taken to combat cl...
Post a Comment
Read more

Deforestation and why it’s a problem

By
Hi everyone, Welcome back to another post. Today we’ll be talking about deforestation and its impacts on our earth. Deforestation, the widespread clearance of natural forests, has been happening for thousands of years. One example is Western Europe, where, two millennia ago, 80% of the land was cloaked in dense forest cover. However, over time, a significant portion of this green expanse was sacrificed to create room for crops, livestock grazing, and as a source of fuel and building materials. Presently, a mere 34% of Western Europe retains its woodland. Today, the tropics deal with the brunt of deforestation. Activities such as mining, agriculture, road construction, and the establishment of vast cattle ranches drive the mass clearance of tropical rainforests. This results in the release of huge amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, exacerbating the global climate crisis. The consequences come in two waves: first, the reduced number of...
Post a Comment
Read more

08.11.2020 Animal of the week: Dolphins

By
Hello, This week we are going to talk about dolphins. Habitat Dolphins live in all of the oceans in the world. They also live in big rivers such as the Amazon in Brazil. Different species live in different parts of the world. Some species prefer coastal waters while others spend days at a time out on the high seas. Are dolphins fish or mammals? Although dolphins live in water they are not fish. Here are only two of the main reasons why dolphins aren't fish. Dolphins have lungs, whereas fish have gills. Because dolphins have lungs, they have to come up to the surface every few minutes. Fish are cold-blooded. Dolphins are warm-blooded. Dolphins are related to whales, who are also mammals. Different types There are almost 40 types of dolphin that live in the ocean and 6 types of river dolphins that live in rivers. The biggest type of dolphin is the orca or the killer whale . The smallest type of dolphin is the hector's dolphin. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Beavers and their dams: what effects do they have?

By
Hi everyone, Today we're talking about beavers and their effects on the surrounding ecosystems and environments. 'Beaver' referres to two species in the genus Castor . They are found in North America, Europe and Asia and are the largest rodents in those places and the second largest rodents in the world. Beavers grow up to 80 cm long with a flat, paddle-shaped tail up to 45 cm. They have a small head, large incisor teeth and fur lined lips to avoid inhaling water while cutting and transporting branches underwater. They weigh 16-30kg and are nocturnal. Beavers live in streams, rivers, marshes, ponds and lakes where they construct dams. These have earned them the title 'ecosystem engineers' but we'll talk about that later. The dams are constructed with branches, sticks and rocks. They create a calm pool with a higher water level on one side. Beavers make their homes (lodges) in these calm pools. Beaver dams are both have bot...
Post a Comment
Read more

Animals 21-25 in our '50 incredible animals' series

By
Hi Everyone! Here are the next five animals in our current series! We hope you learn something from this. 21. Stick insect Stick insects are masters of disguise. They look like twigs or leaves. This strange appearance makes them hard to spot when stationary. Stick insects are herbivores, feeding on leaves, and can live for up to three years. Their habitat includes most tropical and subtropical regions, but there are a few species that live in temperate areas as well. There are roughly 3 000 different stick insect species! Not much more is known about them, because they are difficult to find. The two main threats to their populations are the pet trade and people killing them so as to frame their carcasses, like butterflies. Their conservation status  ranges from critically endangered to least concern  - so basically every category that is on the list! 22. Glass frog The glass frog is, well, see through. You can literally ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Eco System, Galapagos: Part 2 Evolution

By
Hello and welcome to our second post in the Galapagos Series. Today we are going to talk about the iconic evolution in the Islands. The evolution on Galapagos is incredible. It was these islands that gave Charles Darwin the idea of Evolution by Natural Selection. He landed on the Galapagos island on September 16th 1835. The Galapagos Islands are home to hundreds of different types of animal. Creatures like the Galapagos penguin swam to the islands. Giant Tortoises and Marine Iguanas were carried to the islands by ocean currents. They can survive for months without food or water. Birds carried seeds to the islands when they stopped for a break. Insects like spiders got blown off branches and landed on the islands. The arrival of pollinators was crucial for plant life and therefore also the entire ecosystem. Carpenter Bees make nests in tree trunks. It is thought that some carpenter bees' nests were carried across the ocean as d...
Post a Comment
Read more

Evolution

By
Hi, So today, I am going to talk about evolution. We have mentioned this before in our Galapagos Ecosystem series but we’ve never gone over exactly what it is. So before Charles Darwin thought of his theory of evolution, the majority of people in Europe thought that all species were unrelated and that humans were not related to animals. This was mostly based on Christianity. Darwin studied hundreds of different species and on the GalĆ”pagos Islands , he first started to form his theory of evolution. Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection, as it was later called, is best explained by the example of the giraffe. Let's assume that giraffes have short necks (as they did many centuries ago). Now a mother has two children. By chance, one has a slightly longer neck. This is a coincidence. As the giraffes feed on the lower leaves of the trees, these slower disappear. There aren't enough leaves for the giraffes. Thus the giraffe wi...
Post a Comment
Read more

Amazon Rainforest series - part 2: eco system and food chains

By
Welcome back to our Amazon mini-series! Today, we're going to talk about the eco system and food chains of the Amazon Rainforest. The eco system is very complex. If you read our last Amazon post you will know the great number of species that call the Amazon Rainforest home. The Amazon Rainforest is a very accurate name for it. Massive amounts of rain fall on the forest every year. Most of that rain is blown in from the Atlantic Ocean. The rest comes from evaporation. The rainforest is known to be full of life. It provides one of the last refuges for jaguars , harpy eagles and pink river dolphins . But the rainforest is home to many more animals than that. Everyone has heard of poison dart frogs right? In fact, the Amazon Rainforest contains 1 in 10 of all known animal species on Earth! That's a lot of animals! The Amazon is home to over 1 000 species of birds, from hummingbirds to eagles. Macaws are probably the most well...
Post a Comment
Read more

Metamorphosis

By
Hello! Today we thought it would be good to explain exactly how metamorphosis works. It's a term that we often use when talking about frogs, butterflies or other animals, but we've never actually explained what it is or how it works. What is metamorphosis? Metamorphosis is the term used to describe the changes that some animals undergo when turning into adults. It is a physical change that happens after birth/hatching. There is a brilliant quote from the website a-z animals that I just couldn't put any better:  unlike the typical subtle developments in animals, metamorphosis is dramatic. It’s controlled by a release of hormones in the cells. Mammals usually move from adolescence to adulthood and old age gradually, maintaining their form and shape. However, in metamorphosis, an animal moves through those stages and changes from one form or shape to another. How does metamorphosis work? Let's take the classic butterfly example./d...
Post a Comment
Read more