Parasitic species attach to the brain to control suicide ants

The liver fluke lancet forced ants to climb grass or other plants and wait for the herbivores to come to the cup.

Scientists using modern technology to observe inside the control of the liver-lancet ants , Popular Mechanics reported on June 10. This parasite can move between many different animals to complete the life cycle.

Inside the head of an ant is controlled by parasitic animals.(Photo: Natural History Museum).

Lancet fluke begins as an egg in grazing animal waste such as cattle or deer. After being eaten by snails, these eggs hatch into larvae. The snail discharges the larvae in small, viscous globules. Next, ants will eat them into the abdomen.

In ant bodies, this flukes become extremely dangerous organisms. Ants often eat a few flukes for a while and most of them are in the abdomen. However, there is a fluke that will control ant brain and dictate it to find its own death.

When it started to dark, ants often returned to the nest. But the infected ones climbed onto the grass or other plants, used a bite to bite into the tree until they were eaten. After that, this parasite can continue laying eggs in the new host.

The lancet infection will kill itself.(Photo: Natural History Museum).

Biologists know about this parasitic relationship many years ago. However, new computerized tomography techniques help them better visualize. This technique combines microscopy with X-ray images to help describe the world inside small objects in detail.

A new scan of the scan shows that there may be up to three tribes that gain control of the ant brain, but in the end only one controls the host. They cling to brain tissue and target the brain region associated with controlling motion and jaw function.