Hello again People of the Internet!
I have resurfaced from the deep.
It seems mushrooms have become all the rage around here. I blame Merlin Sheldrake for my fungi obsession. Somewhere mid-summer, I burrowed into the underland to explore the unmakers of the world through his brilliant book Entangled Life. I would review it, but I think it’s better to let the author speak for himself…and eat his own words…
It was from this book I first learned about zombie ants and the mad sorcerer fungus that animates them to achieve its nefarious goals. True story: There’s a type of parasitic fungus (Ophiocordyceps) whose spores shower down on carpenter ants as they go about their ant business. The fungus penetrates the ant’s exoskeleton, then chemically hijacks the ant’s central nervous system, forcing it to do things it wouldn’t normally do. Specifically, the fungus makes the ant climb up on vegetation, and lock its jaws on a vein of a leaf. The fungus continues to grows inside the ant’s body, and out through the ant’s feet, which it ties down to the plant’s leaf with threads of itself. Then it sprouts a mushroom out the creature’s dead body so its reign of spore terror can continue on to infect other unsuspecting carpenter ants. I drew this picture just for you because I thought you might want a visual:
Hey, what do you call a fungi that makes music?
A decomposer.
Waka waka waka!
Be good so you don’t get in truffle!
Sorry my mushroom puns are in spore taste.
9 comments
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October 4, 2021 at 10:18 am
Kathy
Ha ha, nothing like impermanence as he eats his own book!
November 7, 2021 at 2:58 am
Lunar Euphoria
I have never witnessed such a bold brave way to publicize one’s work and to simultaneously recycle it.
October 4, 2021 at 1:25 pm
Catherine S Crouch
yikes the ant!
November 7, 2021 at 2:58 am
Lunar Euphoria
I know! Itβs a horror story!
October 6, 2021 at 7:12 am
skatturcast
that book tho!!! I like him, he’s quirky
November 7, 2021 at 2:59 am
Lunar Euphoria
Me too. He lives up to his name
October 8, 2021 at 10:49 am
stitchedinstone
I love your drawing of the ant! OMG this is a funny and wonderful post. π Thank you!
November 7, 2021 at 3:01 am
Lunar Euphoria
Thank you for reading it!
β€οΈπ§π»ββοΈππβ οΈ
What a world, what a world!!
September 3, 2023 at 10:06 pm
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