The air is getting crisp, leaves are turning colors and days are getting shorter. We are nearing the spookiest time of year…Halloween! Before you head to the neighbors’ for some delectable desserts, I must tell you a ghost story. Ok, maybe not a real ghost story but it will certainly get your hair to stand straight up!
Many things can change an animal’s behavior in abnormal ways. You have probably experienced this yourself. Maybe you didn’t get enough sleep one night and spent all day feeling like you woke up on the wrong side of the bed. Or maybe you have a stomach ache, making it harder to concentrate in school. A similar feeling can happen in animals through something called parasites. A parasite is an organism that lives inside another organism that steals nutrients and uses them for themselves. This is bad news for the animal with the parasite. If an animal has a parasite in them it may make them start to feel sick or exhibit some mysterious behaviors…
Scientists have discovered that temperature affects how well parasites infect a certain type of ant. This isn’t your everyday ant you may see it in your family garden, but a special European redwood ant (fancy name: Formica polycenta). When a parasite infects these ants, it puts them into a zombie-like state. This means that when the parasite infects them, they’ll mindlessly grab onto plants in dangerous environments. These environments might be dangerous because they are exposed to potential predators and would eventually get eaten.
In this experiment, scientists focused on the change in weather and how often these ants turn into “zombies”. Rather than their experiments being in a lab, they went into the environment to test how the ants acted throughout the years. The scientists discovered that days with the largest temperature fluctuations showed a higher number of “zombie ants”. [1] What time of year would this be? You’ve probably guessed it. If there’s a zombie, it’s going to be in the fall! The autumnal season (specifically October) had the largest temperature change and therefore, more of these creepy crawly ants.
But do not worry! As I mentioned, these ants do live all the way across the ocean in Europe. They are about as scary as Dracula during the day. Anyway, these “zombies” like to hang out on plants right? Who said you’re eating vegetables on Halloween? Candy is the main dish of course!
References:
[1] Simone Nordstrand Gasque, Brian Lund Fredensborg, Expression of trematode-induced zombie-ant behavior is strongly associated with temperature, Behavioral Ecology, 2023;, arad064, https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arad064
