Earlier quoted context omitted.
Unless the people around them behave like the uninfected ants and just worship them 24/7.
I know a guy who elicits this sort of worship here in the USA.
I think I know the guy. He could hold a lot of tapeworms.
Ant parasites that prolong the life of their host
31–40 of 82 posts
Re: Ant parasites that prolong the life of their host
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
Same with a virus. A virus doesn't want to kill the host. A deadly virus is an unsuccessful virus
Viruses are a little different, though. Retroviruses aside, viruses spread as much and as fast as possible; any mutation that makes them spread more slowly is crowded out, evolution style. So long as it can spread between hosts well enough, a deadly virus is a very successful virus – up until it's driven its host species to local extinction.
The deadliness of a virus doesn't assist its spread. The deadliness doesn't make it more or less successful, everything else being equal, but usually dead hosts are hosts that don't continue to spread the virus, so things aren't equal. In most cases deadliness in viruses is selected out precisely in order to increase their spread.
Re: Ant parasites that prolong the life of their host
#33Not a biologist, but my impression is that in some of ways, individual ants behave more like cells in a multi-celled organism than individual animals. The hive is the organism. (The analogy is certainly not perfect.) Considering that, I don't find this paradoxical at all, still very fascinating. Please correct me if my understanding is wrong, but I think cancer also in some sense helps the individual cell at the cost…
Most species have social behavior and live in groups, to different degrees. Individuals in a society and cells in an organism are also analogous.
So while you're right to call them acting like cells in organism, I'm uncertain what "than individual animals" would mean.
Re: Ant parasites that prolong the life of their host
#34Like in Metal Gear Solid!
Re: Ant parasites that prolong the life of their host
#35It reminds me of this story. Basically, a healthy host is in the parasite's best interest... https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/19/magazine/the-parasite-und...
I'd love to read a follow-up of those folks, now that it's been some years. Does anyone know of such an article?
Re: Ant parasites that prolong the life of their host
#36Not a biologist, but my impression is that in some of ways, individual ants behave more like cells in a multi-celled organism than individual animals. The hive is the organism. (The analogy is certainly not perfect.) Considering that, I don't find this paradoxical at all, still very fascinating. Please correct me if my understanding is wrong, but I think cancer also in some sense helps the individual cell at the cost…
> The hive is the organism.
Literally part of the article.
Re: Ant parasites that prolong the life of their host
#37Reminds me of parasites in Stargate giving their host longer lifespan and superpowers
Re: Ant parasites that prolong the life of their host
#38>"The tapeworm-laden ants didn’t just outlive their siblings, the team found. They were coddled while they did it. They spent their days lounging in their nest, performing none of the tasks expected of workers. They were groomed, fed, and carried by their siblings, often receiving more attention than even the queen—unheard of in a typical ant society—and gave absolutely nothing in return." I wonder if there is a huma…
Let people enjoy things. If you don't like the Kardashians, fine. I don't either. But clearly some folks do and are willing to help propel them to fame (or notoriety). I know your comment is being glib, but it's emblematic of HN crowds saying, "I don't like this thing, therefore this thing is funny/bad." It costs you nothing to post your comment and just let people like the things they like.
Let people criticize things. I doubt you'd apply your comment toward your favorite political pet causes. Why are the Kardashians the one thing in our society that is not allowed to be criticized? This whole "let people enjoy things" is cynical, usually coming from the types of people who don't let anyone enjoy anything unless it is degenerate and mind-rotting.
Re: Ant parasites that prolong the life of their host
#39Not a biologist, but my impression is that in some of ways, individual ants behave more like cells in a multi-celled organism than individual animals. The hive is the organism. (The analogy is certainly not perfect.) Considering that, I don't find this paradoxical at all, still very fascinating. Please correct me if my understanding is wrong, but I think cancer also in some sense helps the individual cell at the cost…
Most species have social behavior and live in groups, to different degrees. Individuals in a society and cells in an organism are also analogous. So while you're right to call them acting like cells in organism, I'm uncertain what "than individual animals" would mean.
While this is true, eusociality is fairly distinctive. The part where most of the colony can't breed is what really stands out.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eusociality
This does make individual hymenopterans less like individuals of other species, which are in competition with others of the same gametes for the privilege of breeding and the survival of their offspring.
Hymenopterans are more individual than slime molds: they're multicellular, have their own organs, and so on. But less individual than any other form of multicellular animal life. It isn't altruistic, in a Darwinian sense, for a drone to give its life for the colony, because it isn't able to breed, the only way it can pass on its genome is by protecting the queen.
I'm pretty confident what was meant is "than more individualistic animals".
Re: Ant parasites that prolong the life of their host
#40It reminds me of this story. Basically, a healthy host is in the parasite's best interest... https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/19/magazine/the-parasite-und...
Same with a virus. A virus doesn't want to kill the host. A deadly virus is an unsuccessful virus
Not unless it spread to other hosts first.