I remember that about five or six years ago, the science fiction manga "Parasitic Beast" created by Japanese manga artist Iwa Akira, depicted a mysterious parasitic spore from space invading the human body and turning the human into a brainless zombie. The protagonist, Shinichi Izumi, is fortunate to be parasitized on his right arm, thus retaining his independent will, and in order to survive, he and the parasite become "comrades-in-arms" and work together to save mankind. In the real world, is there such a "parasitic beast"? Is there a prototype in nature for this parasitic brainwashing and manipulation of puppets?
The red-billed cow starling on the African savannah, always standing on the back of herbivores such as buffalo and pecking at the parasites on its body, is one of the survival relationships across species.
Survival relationships across species: parasitism, saprophysis, symbiosis
To find out the truth, it is necessary to first understand the relationship between organisms in nature, according to the lifestyle of different organisms, roughly divided into the following three categories: absorbing other biological nutrients, one side profits from them, while the other side can only suffer from the "parasitic type", such as the well-known Cordyceps sinensis, eating rotten garbage, animal carcasses for a living "saprophytic type", such as vultures, African spotted hyenas, and "symbiotic types" that coexist with other creatures, such as clownfish, hermit crabs and boxing crabs that are inseparable from sea anemones.
Ants that love to eat "honeydew" and aphids that can secrete "honeydew" form a symbiotic relationship of "mutually beneficial coexistence".
Among them, parasitism and symbiosis are undoubtedly the most complex survival relationships in the relationship between species in nature, but the former belongs to the harm of others and self-interest, and the latter belongs to mutual help and win-win results. The so-called symbiotic relationship is "coexistence", when the two sides of different species can maintain mutual benefit for a long time, their relationship will evolve more and more closely, to the point of interdependence. For example, some ants that love to eat "honeydew" have a symbiotic relationship with insects such as aphids and whiteflies that can secrete "honeydew". The so-called honeydew, to put it bluntly, is the poop of an aphid, which is rich in sugar, amino acids and vitamins and other nutrients needed by ants. So ants, like herders protecting cattle and sheep, send out "security brigades" to protect these aphids, mealybugs, and even move them to their nests in winter. In this way, the ants get food and the aphids get safety.
If one of the symbiotic parties is stronger and can always take advantage, it may turn to a one-sided "parasitic" relationship.
Of course, in the animal world, there is not much mutual help between truly equal win-win and teammates. More often, it is the two species in the cooperative that pursue their own interests as much as possible, trying to take advantage of only and not to lose. But if one of the symbiotic parties is stronger and can always take advantage, it may turn to a one-sided "parasitic" relationship. Just like in Koman, parasitic beasts target the parasitic brain, assimilate with brain cells after parasitism is complete, and control their behavior, and their food is the same species as the parasite. Of course, the male protagonist Izumi Shinichi did not become a puppet zombie like others, and he happened to be parasitized in his hand, not only did not have to worry about his life, but instead received the blessing of the special function of the parasitic beast, and the relationship between the two was more like a "symbiotic relationship".
The flea fly can be called the "brain-eating monster" in nature, and it is the nemesis of the red fire ant.
Parasitic owls, manipulating puppets
In nature, the "brain-eating monster" that resembles a parasitic beast is a flea fly. They lay their eggs inside the red fire ant, and after hatching, the larvae enter the ant's head, leaving the nest and wandering aimlessly for a week or two. Finally, it will eat up the ant's brain, and the ant's head will fall off the body, and the adult flea fly will crawl out of the ant head contentedly to plague more red fire ants. For the red fire ant, the flea fly is undoubtedly the most terrifying nightmare. But the red fire ant, native to South America, is itself a well-known invasive species that poses a great threat to the ecology of the world. For areas that are deeply affected by fire ants, flea flies are a "hero". However, at the same time as the flea fly owl red fire ant, it will also be "decapitated" along with the native ant species.
Zhou's wasp can stab the egg laying device into the pupae of american white moths and other pests, and develop and grow in the pupae, sucking up all the nutrients in the parasitic pupae, known as the "little guardian of the forest."
In addition to the extremely cruel flea flies, there are also Zhou's small bees cultivated by the garden department. Unlike bees and wasps, which live in groups, as solitary parasitic bees, they will look for the large pest American white moth to carry out encirclement and suppression after hatching, and the location of the white moth pupa is no matter how hidden, the small wasps can be found. Moreover, the Zhou's wasp has a high parasitic rate and strong fertility, and a female bee can lay 680 eggs. The meaning of their lives is to find a host, lay eggs, let their larvae grow while biting the host's flesh and blood, and then pupate, feather, mate, and start the next cycle. And those unlucky hosts can only die in pain or numbness.
Mantis wasps lay their eggs into the mantis egg sac after the sting
From a human point of view, Zhou's wasp is a conscientious "agricultural and forestry guard". However, for other insects, the Zhou's bee and the parasitic bee family to which it belongs are insidiously vicious body-eating demons and impermanent from the Yan Luo Temple, which can be called a "big killer" in the insect world, but the Zhou's wasp will also accidentally injure harmless or even precious native insects when "killing the enemy", so there is also controversy.
Ceratophyllus seromatodes, "manipulate" the host to be preyed upon by predators in order to achieve the purpose of metastasis and reproduction.
Persecution has a specialty, to the detriment of others and self-interest
Of course, in addition to parasitizing the host to achieve reproduction, some parasites will also deliberately let the host throw themselves into the arms of natural enemies and kill people with knives to achieve ulterior motives. For example, a water fluke worm will first parasitize in the body of a snail and then release the larvae "tail cricket". The tail clypse first parasitizes the gills of the medaka and then slowly burrows into the fish's brain. At this time, due to the action of the parasite, some part of the medaka body will shine, and the control of the fish will flip the shiny part to the upward direction. This makes it easy to be spotted by water birds in the air. When the bird preys on the fish, the water fluke worm enters its third host and continues to develop. Soon after, it will fall into the water with the bird droppings, continue to infect the snails, and begin another parasitic journey.
A dead cricket, a clematis parasitic worm that grows to a certain extent, will cause the cricket to commit suicide by diving into the water to facilitate its own breeding in the water.
There are also insects such as dying crickets or praying mantises that can often be found in the riverside, and they often drill a wire-like bug in their stomachs, which is a clematis. Although it does not parasitize in the head of the mantis, it can also control the behavior of crickets: when the clematis in the cricket's abdomen matures, it must return to the water to complete the task of spawning. At this time, the clematis will drive the crickets to find a water source and commit suicide by diving into the water to facilitate themselves to break out of the abdomen and breed offspring in the water. The South Koreans also made a thriller movie "Clematis Invasion" based on the characteristics of clematis.
Cordyceps sinensis is a "rich and handsome" of cordyceps fungi, which is parasitized by bat moth larvae by cordyceps fungi, and is a very valuable medicinal herb in Chinese medicine.
Compared with the mysterious parasitic beast in the anime, which uses the host as a carrier and relies on the foster body to survive, it always manipulates it; while the real "parasitic beast" in nature only treats the host as a living nutrient bank, once it grows into a "worm", this nutrition pool will be useless, it will be killed immediately, and the end can be described as tragic.
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