‘How Your Cat Is Making You Crazy’

Posted on February 11, 2012 by KG

Perhaps..but then again, maybe not. But this is an absolutely fascinating article about how parasitic organisms modify the host’s behaviour:
‘….Consider Polysphincta gutfreundi, a parasitic wasp that grabs hold of an orb spider and attaches a tiny egg to its belly. A wormlike larva emerges from the egg, and then releases chemicals that prompt the spider to abandon weaving its familiar spiral web and instead spin its silk thread into a special pattern that will hold the cocoon in which the larva matures. The “possessed” spider even crochets a specific geometric design in the net, camouflaging the cocoon from the wasp’s predators…’
the rest of it

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11 Responses to ‘How Your Cat Is Making You Crazy’

  1. Octagongrappler says:
    February 11, 2012 at 11:22

    My Cat is a pure bred british burmese, Does that mean he has to go? :mrgreen:

  2. KG says:
    February 11, 2012 at 11:45

    The weird thing is, nowhere in that article (or maybe I missed it?) is there reference to a method of getting rid of the parasite once a person is infected!

  3. Moist von Lipwig says:
    February 11, 2012 at 11:51

    I took one look at Jaroslav and tip-toed away,
    trying not to make eye contact. :shock:

  4. KG says:
    February 11, 2012 at 12:09

    Metaphor alert!
    Makes me wonder if a similar organism to Polysphincta gutfreundi hasn’t infected RINOS…

  5. KG says:
    February 11, 2012 at 12:27

    Not a headline you see often:
    “woman and horse killed in hyperbaric chamber explosion”
    Was it a scubahorse? was it in the chamber or next to it? were horse and woman suffering from the bends?
    Wabbit is reluctant to go read the article–the mystery is more interesting.

  6. mara says:
    February 11, 2012 at 20:10

    Well well, this cunning little critter makes all human beings behave exactly like human beings. So without it in all our brains( and it must be since cats were invented donkeys years ago, ergo, we wouldn’t be human beings after all. Eureka! The missing link!! :idea: