Photos Inflamed Abdomen
The key to the process is the fact that ants collect bird droppings, which are full of insect parts, seeds and also, by default, roundworm eggs. Ants feed the bird feces to their own larvae. The parasites in the poo hatch and travel to the tiny ant's gaster, where they mate and multiply. The victim ant then leaves the nest looking like a ripe berry.
Steve Heydon, curator and collections manager at the Bohart Museum of Entomology at the University of California at Davis, told Discovery News that "quite a few parasites do weird things to their hosts." He shared how one trematode parasite actually exerts a sort of mind control over certain ants, causing the ants to climb up grass stalks, clamp on and basically wait to be eaten. The consumer then poops and starts the trematode's life cycle again. An even more unusual process affects snails, according to Heydon. "Parasites can infect certain snails, causing their eyestalks to change color, swell and snap off," he said. Like the bug in a Mexican jumping bean, the parasites in the snail eyes then cause the eyes "to wiggle, which attracts fish that eat them, allowing the parasite to move into its next life cycle stage." How such behaviors evolved mystifies both Heydon and Yanoviak. "I have no explanation for it," Heydon admitted. "Parasites are simply amazing creatures. Their life cycles are astounding."
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