"Inhaling the Spore"

So beautiful, I had to reprint it. Originally found here.

"In Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder, the first image is of ants foraging for food on the rainforest floor, who every once in a while accidently inhale the spore of a fungus. The spore lodges in their brain and they start to behave oddly. They leave the forest floor for the first time in their lives, climbing up the tendrils of surrounding vines, and eventually impale their mandibles on the stalk of vine and wait to die. "

"They die because the fungus has actually been eating away their entire nervous system, and two weeks after their death, a horn, laden with spores, erupts from out of their heads. The spores then rain down onto the forest floor and the whole process starts again. "

Comments

[crinis]

That was beautiful (if sad). I've been retelling this story for weeks now. I like it for lots of reasons, but the idea of a fungus modifying the behavior of an animal to do its bidding is horrifying and beautiful at the same time.

I saw two hikers in Point Reyes just lie down in the middle of the trail, "just 'cause they felt like it" and I wondered what spore had gotten into their brain. My wife and I decided to hike faster.

crinis, you're a cretinous square.