Something is growing inside that fruit fly in your kitchen. At dusk, the fly points its wings straight up and dies in a gruesome pose so that a fungus can ooze out and fire hundreds of reproductive spores.

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Some of the scariest monsters are the ones that grow inside another being and take over its body. Think of the movie Alien, where the reptile-like space creature explodes out of its victim’s chest.

That monster might be fictional, but scientists are studying a fungus that’s horrifyingly real — at least for the flies it invades, turns into a zombie-like state and kills in order to reproduce.

“Oh, it’s a nightmare for the flies,” said entomologist Brad Mullens, who studied the fungus at the University of California, Riverside.

The fungus is known by its scientific name, Entomophthora muscae, which means “fly destroyer.” It lives off houseflies and fruit flies, among others.

“It’s a crazy system,” said Carolyn Elya, a biologist at Harvard. “The fungus only kills at dusk.”

Like a killer puppeteer, the fungus follows a precise clock.

At dusk on the fourth or fifth day after it picks up a fungal spore, an infected fruit fly stops flying. It starts behaving erratically, for example climbing up and down toothpicks that Elya puts into the vials where she keeps the infected insects.

Then the fly climbs to the top of the toothpick, a behavior Elya and other scientists refer to as “summiting.”

In an unusual twist, the fly then extends its mouthpart down, and some liquid drips out and glues the fly to the surface it’s standing on. Over the next 10 minutes, the fly’s wings ascend until they’re pointing upwards and it dies frozen in this lifelike pose.

Soon after, white spongy fungus oozes out of its abdomen. This white goo is made up of hundreds of lollipop-shaped protrusions which each launch a microscopic bell-shaped spore at high speed. Now the spores just need to get into another fly to grow.

--- Could this or a similar fungus “zombify” humans?
“No, it's very unlikely,” Elya said. “We can control our bodily temperature to kill invaders.”

-- Can we use the fungus as biological control?
Researchers have tried, but the spores are too fragile to grow in the lab.

---+ Read the entire article on KQED Science:
https://www.kqed.org/science/1....949314/this-killer-f

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🏆Congratulations🏆 to the following fans on our Deep Look Community Tab for coming up with the top titles - as decided by fellow Deep Peeps - for a horror movie starring this fungus:

Joginiz - "Flyday the 13th'
KingXDragoon - "Pretty Fly for a dead guy"
Laura Garrard - The Fungus Among Us!!
Lysiasolo - "Parafungal activity"
De paus van de Lilith Kerk - The whitecorpse horror (as an ode to HP Lovecraft "the Dunwich horror")

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#fruitflies #deeplook

Kidnapper ants raid other ant species' colonies, abduct their young and take them back to their nest. When the enslaved babies grow up, the kidnappers trick them into serving their captors – hunting, cleaning the nest, even chewing up their food for them.

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A miniature drama is playing out on the forest floor in California’s preeminent mountain range, the Sierra Nevada, at this time of year. As the sun sets, look closely and you might see a stream of red ants frantically climbing over leaves and rocks.

They aren’t looking for food. They’re looking for other ants. They’re kidnappers.

“It’s hard to know who you're rooting for in this situation,” says Kelsey Scheckel, a graduate student at UC Berkeley who studies kidnapper ants. “You're just excited to be a bystander.”

On this late summer afternoon, Scheckel stares intently over the landscape at the Sagehen Creek Field Station, part of the University of California’s Natural Reserve System, near Truckee, California.“The first thing we do is try to find a colony with two very different-looking species cohabitating,” Scheckel says.

“That type of coexistence is pretty rare. As soon as we find that, we can get excited.”

--- How do ants communicate?
Ants mostly use their sense of smell to learn about the world around themselves and to recognize nestmates from intruders. They don’t have noses. Instead, they use their antennae to sense chemicals on surfaces and in the air. Ants’ antennae are porous like a kitchen sponge allowing chemicals to enter and activate receptors inside. You will often see ants tap each other with their antennae. That behavior, called antennation, helps them recognize nestmates who will share the same chemical nest signature.

---Can ants bite or sting?
Many ants will use their mandibles, or jaws, to defend themselves but that typically just feels like a pinch. Some ants have a stinger at the end of their abdomen that can deliver a venomous sting. While the type of venom can vary across species, many ants’ sting contains formic acid which causes a burning sensation. Some have special glands containing acid that can spray at attackers causing burning and alarming odors.

---+ Read the entire article on KQED Science:

https://www.kqed.org/science/1....947369/kidnapper-ant

---+ For more information:

Neil Tsutsui Lab of Evolution, Ecology and Behavior of Social Insects at the University of California, Berkeley
https://nature.berkeley.edu/tsutsuilab/

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🏆Congratulations 🏆to the following fans for correctly naming and describing the inter-species, mandible-to-mandible ant behavior we showed on our Deep Look Community Tab… "trophallaxis:"

Senpai
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https://www.youtube.com/channe....l/UC-3SbfTPJsL8fJAPK

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⁣The Kemet pyramids wasn’t built in a day, but with time, planning, and action... the stones went up! Let’s get it ✊🏾

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The #WinnerInTheMirror - Activating Your Superpowers: Mind, Body, and Spirit by #KingKevinDorival.

Book Release: Spring 2021. Thanks to everyone that supported me from day one with my first 2 books! The Courage To Believe and 7 Types of Queens, Kings Desire! Stay blessed and encouraged - no matter what. For bookings: info@kevindorival.com #Inspirational

It feels good to get my Ghanian Driver's License. Repatriatetoghana.com assist me through the process.

Ma yɛnkɔ! (Let's go!)

⁣House renting viewing

Nana Amos Wilson Veneration - Blueprint for Black Power Groundation!

FOR TICKETS & FULL INFORMATION VISIT: medukation.com/groundation

Nana Amos Wilson is the Author of:
• The Developmental Psychology of the Black Child
• Awakening the Natural Genius of Black Children
• Blueprint for Black Power

He also established @Afrikan World Info Systems, a publishing company dedicated to knowledge production, specific to the needs of the Global Afrikan Community. Few, if any, were more prolific in providing a more scientific analysis of the plight of Black people, and putting forward tangible programmes. Shortly before the publishing of Blueprint for Black Power, Nana Wilson passed away - 14th January 1995. He was on the verge of developing a credit union and other institutions around the community businesses and organisations he was involved in.

Nana Amos Wilson laid a Blueprint. He did his work. Now we honour him the best way we know how - profiling those who are building on this illustrious legacy, engaging the Blueprint in thought and action.

KEYNOTE ADDRESSES:
BRO. LDR. MBANDAKA - Spiritual Leader of the Alkebu-Lan Revivalist Movement. Political-Cultural Scientist/veteran activist.

IS AFRIKA REALLY RISING?: DISSECTING THE PROPAGANDA

QUEEN TAESE - Queen of Homeschooling, founder of Liberated Minds Black Homeschool & Educational Institute
EDUCATING OUR CHILDREN: THE POWER IS IN THE ACTIVATION

Hosted By: ShakaRa
With contributions from:
SABABU N. PLATA - Co-Founder of Afrikan World Info Systems
MINISTER MALAK - Afrikan World Federation
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AIGHT... SO This is one of them questions that is ALWAYSED ASK!... Mostly by Black people who are yet to come to terms with their own Afrikaness, or someone else's... and just want to take a jab. BUT... Because it's so frequently asked, it's a good question to explore. Here we go.... 1/3

THE PAN-AFRIKAN QUESTION provides concise answers to popularly asked questions about Pan-Afrikanism. If you have a question that you think needs to be answered, drop in the it comments section & we'll do our best to drop some knowledge.

#PanAfrikanism #BlackNationalism #AfrikanLiberation #TPAQ

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Baba Amos tells us how we will be able to transform our communities. "The Black Nationalist will have to build in concrete and mortar".
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