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#cordyceps

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earthling

This eerie but vibrant snap shows a flower mantis (Creobroter sp.) perched on top of the strange fruiting body of a Cordyceps fungus. In daylight, this insect is usually green, but wildlife photographer Irina Petrova Adamatzky used strategically placed coloured lights to accentuate its otherworldly appearance and that of the fungus. The shot won a bronze award in the 2025 World Nature Photography Awards

nature.com/immersive/d41586-02

#macrophotography
#mantis
#cordyceps

Blue mantis on orange Cordyceps.
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Lydia Schoch

Season 2 of The Last of Us is only a few weeks away.

As always, I won’t share spoilers, but I may gush about it here if it’s as good as I hope it will be.

The nice thing about this slice of the horror genre is that you never have to worry about it actually happening in real life. So I can be scared in a fun way if that makes sense.

#TheLastOfUs#Television#Horror
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BBC Radio 4

🍄 ☕️ Is there some mushroom coffee in your cupboard?

🤔 In the last of the current series of Sliced Bread, Greg Foot investigates the fungi-fuelled trend for coffees, teas, even hot chocolates, that contain so called “medicinal mushrooms” - the likes of Reishi, Cordyceps, Chaga or Lion’s Mane.

Are they the best thing since sliced bread or marketing BS?

Sliced Bread, on BBC Sounds.
bbc.in/3vJw7wG

#nutrition#fungi#mushroom
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Riroriro :comfy:

Anecdotally, a few cases of people who COULD NOT STOP coming around to our house just after #COVID infection, and related events in wider family.

Strikingly notable, as never saw so much of them before or since. No, we did NOT let them in.

I did wonder whether virus had activated some mammalian socialisation lever common to humans/bats.

Semi-related paper from 2021 doing the rounds this morning:
link.springer.com/article/10.1

#Parasite
#Toxoplasmosis
#Cordyceps
#HostManipulation
#ToxicMimicry

In hosts with a nervous system, neuromanipulation is one means by which a parasite can enhance its transmissability, by influencing host mobility and other behaviors (Hughes and Libersat 2019). Manipulation by parasites may occur at the molecular or sensory level and is employed by endosymbiotic bacteria, microbial eukaryotic parasites, vertebrate parasites, and is a feature of some human personality types (Table ). Despite its widespread nature, host manipulation has not been well characterized in viruses, however according to the signaling games perspective, viruses would be expected to use host behavior manipulation as well. Indeed, the prediction has been made that SARS-CoV-2 manipulates host behavior to its own benefit (Barton et al. 2020). Here, potential host manipulation strategies by SARS-CoV-2 are examined with a focus on its binding to neuropilin-1 and the resultant effects on pain suppression. The evolutionary forces that led to neuropilin-1 binding during the evolution of the ancestral bat virus into the new human host are discussed, and examples of convergent neuropilin binding by the surface proteins of other human RNA viruses are described. Given that this has arisen independently on several occasions, there appears a strategic benefit to neuropilin binding, which may have a host manipulation component...
Table 1 Manipulation of host behavior by parasites from multiple levels of biotic organization Virus - Rabies lyssavirus (rabies) - Bats: Symptoms of rabies infection include hydrophobia, anxiety, hyperactivity, aggression and fearlessness (Bano et al. 2016) Protozoan - Toxoplasma gondii (toxoplasmosis) - Cats: (In rats) increase in exploratory behavior, decrease in neophobia and fear of cats, its primary host (Webster 2007). This is linked with increased dopamine Fungus - Ophiocordyceps unilateralis - Ants: The infected ant climbs to the tip of a leaf, and then clamps its jaws on it until it dies. Then the fungus bursts out of the head of the ant and spreads its spores Invertebrate - Hairworm (Spinochordodes tellini) - Grasshoppers: The hairworm causes the grasshopper to commit suicide by drowning. promoting spread of parasite larvae Vertebrate - Cuckoo - Nesting birds: Host bird diverts resources to feed the cuckoo chick. The chick gape is a stimulus that induces the host birds to supply it with food Human - Psychopaths (described as ‘social parasites' (Karpman 1949) - Non-kin members of the same species: Victims are deceived into thinking the psychopath is trustworthy
While the sense of smell in humans is relatively weak, reduction in the sense may have an adaptive benefit for coronavaviruses in bats, possibly increasing risky behavior. Given that spike protein PCSs have been observed in a range of coronaviruses, it would be interesting to determine if the host species of coronaviruses that possess PCSs rely particularly on their sense of smell (Chaverri et al. 2018). A well- known example of a parasite manipulating its host’s sense of smell is provided by Toxoplasma gondii. Rats infected by T.gondii, experience loss of fear of the smell of cats, the parasite’s main host, which has been proposed to increase the chance of predation of infected rats and so transmittal of T.gondii (Berdoy et al. 2000). Infection by SARS-CoV-2 is also associated with impaired consciousness, linked with inflammation, vascular damage and neuroinvasion (Losy 2020). It is unclear if this symptom is adaptive to the virus, for example by increasing the probability of transmission via an increase in risky behaviors. This might include a failure to adhere to hand washing and other social distancing measures, in the modern milieu.
There are two aspects to this deceptive mimicry: interpersonal deception (decep- tion of others) and intrapersonal deception (self-deception). Interpersonal deception involves the infected person mimicking a healthy person, so others will be less likely to take precautions when coming into contact with them, promoting spread of the virus. Intrapersonal deception involves the virus manipulating the mood of the infected person, so that they may feel well, which will encourage them to main- tain their social interactions, rather than self-isolate. This has an interesting parallel with von Hippel and Trivers’ theory of self-deception, which proposes that people deceive themselves in order to better deceive others (von Hippel and Trivers 2011). Neither virus-induced intrapersonal or interpersonal deception are likely to benefit the host, but are beneficial to the virus if they increase viral transmission. Given the ancestor of SARS-CoV-2 evolved in bats, it is not clear if these effects would have been beneficial in these animals.
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