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

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 Team💚

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:

https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/did-you-know/did-you-know-leafcutter-ants-are-farmers-who-grow-fungi

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/cordyceps-zombie-fungus-takes-over-ants

https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/07/study-zombie-muscle-contractions-not-the-brain/

https://youtu.be/ROQrbWkV4HI

https://youtu.be/mXlyKwpLbSw

https://youtu.be/nIyu-1Jw_rg

https://youtu.be/XuKjBIBBAL8

https://youtu.be/CKUx1aSC9MU

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.

Comments

The life of ... an alcon blue butterfly

Hi everyone, Today we are going to be looking into the life of an alcon blue butterfly (Phengaris alcon). After mating, the females lay their eggs on marsh gentian, a blue-coloured wildflower. The eggs can only be laid on these flowers, as this is what the newly hatched caterpillars will eat. Although in some alp regions, they can also be found on willow gentians, a close relative of the marsh gentian. Once the caterpillars have hatched from the eggs, their main predator and danger are the ants that swarm below. But high on their plant homes, the caterpillars are safe. However, this isn't where the alcon blue caterpillars are going to stay forever. Eventually, they drop down to the ground using silk strings. With no protection, they are soon dragged off by the ants. The most amazing part is, the alcon blue caterpillars give off the same scent and chemicals as the ant larvae. So the ants take the caterpillars back to their brood chamber, wher...

March Top Tips // 10 little things you can avoid in daily life

Welcome to the Top Tips this month! We'll be talking about 10 things you can avoid using in everyday life. We know it's a really simple topic, but it can actually make quite a difference. The avoidable stuff will be things many use because they look nice or taste nice or similar, but aren't actually necessary. We will also write a couple of facts on these things, and give ideas on how you could substitute them if possible. Many might be very obvious, but think about it, do you actually not use them? Have fun! Chewing Gum Most people would not be surprised when told that lots of chewing gum have synthetic colouring and flavouring. However, most people would be surprised when told that chewing gum is largely made of plastic. What the companies call the "gum base" is plastic and partly made of the same stuff plastic bags are made of. The gum contains microplastics that, if you spit your gum on the ground often tend to get into the oce...

10 Animals on the Edge of Extinction No. 10- The Javan Rhino

The Javan rhino is listed as the 1st animal on WWF’s list of the 10 world’s most endangered animals, and I for my part, had never heard of it! If you hadn’t either, we’re changing that now. A bit about the rhino’s lifestyle The Javan rhinos are now exclusively found on the island of Java in Indonesia, but were once found in vast regions of northeast india and Southeast Asia. They have a dark grey colour which looks almost black when wet, and their (often pink) skin folds look a bit like plated armor. Both males and females have lower incisors which resemble tusks that they use to fight. Males have one relatively short horn of about 25 cm (10 inches). Javan Rhinos live in tropical forests, marshy areas and in the thick bush. They are mainly browsers and eat over 100 plants species they find in the forest, weigh between 900 and 2300 kg (1984-5071 pounds) and are between 3 and 3.2 meters (10- 10.5 feet) long. How endangered are we talking? Javan rhinos are the most ...

April Top Tips: ten tips for environmentally friendly travel

Hi Everyone! We haven't been very present on the blog again recently but we are back today with ten top tips for environmentally friendly travel. Most forms of travel over long distances (unless you are willing to put in a lot of physical effort) use fossil fuels and are generally not good for our planet. So today we will be giving you a few tips which although won't mean that your travel is 100% planet friendly, will be a good start to doing as much as you can. Your Green World Blog Team💚 1. Use trains and boats rather than planes where possible Planes are awful for the environment. They are, however, extremely practical and so easy to use, cheap...It's hard to avoid them! They are so quick too so you don't have to spend as much time travelling. However, they are really bad for the environment. For example, you could fly once to Edinburgh from Heathrow for the same carbon dioxide levels as driving to Edinburgh 336 times! 2. Fly...

Energy comparison: natural gas

Hi everyone, Today we're talking about natural gas. Natural gas is a commonly used fossil fuel. So we thought we would go over the pros and cons of natural gas. So first of all, we can quickly cover what natural gas actually is. In its natural form it's a mix of mostly methane and then some other chemical components like propane and butane. However, it's normally processed so that it's almost pure methane. Natural gas forms when organic materials (like dead plants and animals) are crushed into the ground. So it's like coal in that sense. The most popular theory is that the different conditions like temperature and pressure then control whether coal, oil, or gas is formed. Natural gas reserves are found globally. The largest gas fields are in Russia, under the North Sea, in the United States, Canada, Algeria and the Middle East. It's often found near to or even in oil fields. Natural gas is colourless, odorless, tasteless and ...

Animals 36-40 in our '50 incredible animals' series

Hi, As you probably noticed, we took a break from this series, mostly due to having just too much to do. But we're back now with the last three posts. 36. The Pinocchio frog The Pinocchio frog can be found in the Foja Mountains in Indonesia. They mainly eat insects, although little is known about them. They are named because the males have a spike on their noses. They were only discovered in 2008, and this was completely by accident! It remained unnamed scientifically until over ten years later when it was given the name " Litoria pinocchio " . There is very little information about them but Wikipedia states that "the male Pinocchio frog inflates its nose when calling, and the nose decreases in size when the frog is calm and quiet," which I think is hilarious and so interesting! 37. Snub-nosed monkey Especially noticeable due to their curious looks, the snub-nosed monkeys can be found in the forests of central China and northern...

Animals 11-15 in our '50 incredible animals' series

Hello, We have another five amazing animals for you today. Enjoy! 11. Dhole This is a dog species which looks rather like a red fox . They are difficult to put into any of the dog subfamilies. They aren't foxes, nor wolves, nor domestic dogs. Dholes are fast runners and live in packs of 5-12 individuals. Although sometimes, different packs will join forces to become a pack of 30 or more individuals! However, these super packs are broken up after a successful hunt. The different packs rarely attack each other as neighbouring packs are often closely related. Dhole packs live in burrows with multiple entrances. They can be found in eastern and southern Asia. They eat wild berries, insects and lizards and as a pack hunt deer, rodents and other wild mammals. Interestingly, unlike other dogs, they rarely kill by biting at the throat. They are also good swimmers! 12. Irrawaddy dolphin The Irrawaddy dolphin can be found in coastal areas of south a...

Climate change: what is it and what's the problem

Hello, I've noticed that we are always mentioning climate change. Not only us blog editors but also politicians, activists and so on. The words climate change are bounced around in the media and probably in your households, but do you actually know what it is or how it works? I know that for a long time, I didn't know what it really meant. I hope that this post changes that. What is climate change and how does it work? The words climate change describe a slow shift in the earth's temperature and changes in the weather patterns. Having a single warm winter does not instantly mean climate change. Climate change happens over a long period of time. If you look at a temperature graph over the years, it doesn't go up in one day and then stay the same for another hundred years. It curves up slowly but steadily. This is a average temperature graph from 1880 to just after 2000. You can see how the temperature gradually gets warmer....

The Responsible Traveller by Karen Edwards || a practical guide to reducing your environmental and social impact // BOOK REVIEW

HI Everyone! Our January monthly post was a zero-waste challenge, but as we explained in our 2023 wrap up , this year we will be alternating a monthly challenge with a book review, of course related to the environment. This week, I'm going to share a recommendation for a fantastic book, all about how you can travel more sustainably and responsibly. I absolutely love travelling, but I'm also very aware of the impact it has on the world, and I am very keen to learn more about how I can further reduce my impact. That's why I bought this book around a year ago, and I've really enjoyed reading it and learning from it. This is a practical, small-format guide, sharing both basic information about the climate crisis and the impact of various travel activities, and how you can do your bit. It shares specific journeys that are more environmentally friendly options, for example long distance train journeys such as The Alaskan Railroad with its stunning alpine forests and wide ar...

10 animals on the edge of extinction you didn't know about no.3- The Monarch butterfly

The monarch butterfly is an animal you will probably have seen around in your life. It's not the kind of animal you will know the name of, much less the extinction status, but the monarch butterfly is rated "endangered" on the WWF website. It's affected by climate change and humans and its numbers have declined greatly. Fast Facts The Monarch Butterfly is a rather small animal, however pretty large for one of its species. Their wingspan ranges from about 90 to 100 mm, the male butterflies being slightly larger than the female. They are orange with a black patterning and white dots on the sides of their wings, the vibrant colours warn predators of their bad taste. Monarch butterflies are known for their migration habits. They are mainly found in northern America, but travel to the south (Mexico or California mainly) to hibernate. These tiny butterflies travel almost 3 thousand kilometres and can be found all over the planet by now...

Green World

Search This Blog