大象

sinister parasites that control their host's minds
会控制寄主的阴险寄生虫

Zombie ant fungus (Ophiocordyceps unilateralis)
僵尸与真菌(Ophiocordyceps unilateralis)
Ants are great navigators, following highly efficient paths as they forage for food. But in the rainforests of Thailand, Africa and Brazil, Camponotus leonardi ants get pulled off course by Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, a parasitic fungus (pictured above).
蚂蚁是优秀的导航员，在外出搜寻食物时会沿效率最高的路径行动。但是当在泰国、非洲和巴西的热带雨林里，弓背蚁（Camponotus leonardi）会被一种寄生真菌（Ophiocordyceps unilateralis）诱导。
A spore first infects an ant foraging on the rainforest floor, then spends 3-9 days developing inside its body. When the fungus is ready to complete its life cycle, it manipulates the worker to plod blindly away from safety, like a zombie.
当一只蚂蚁在热带雨林中搜寻食物时，孢子感染到它身上，然后经过3-9天，扩散到全身各处。当真菌准备完成生命周期时，它操纵这只工蚁像僵尸一样，昏昏沉沉地离开安全的蚁巢，
A study in 2009 found that the ants always went to similar locations: around 25 cm up a tree, in a spot with just the right amount of humidity for the fungus to grow. The ant then clamps down on a leaf with its mandibles, and dies.
2009年的一项研究发现，这种蚂蚁只会前往一个地方：离地面约25厘米高的树干上，这个地方的湿度最适合真菌生长。这只蚂蚁用大颚咬住一片树叶，然后死掉了。

Within 24 hours, fungal threads emerge from the corpse. Finally, a stalk pushes out of the ant and begins raining spores onto the rainforest floor, where they can infect more ants. It's a bit like the chest-bursting scene from Alien, except that the ant is mercifully dead when the fungus explodes out of its head.
在24小时内，真菌从尸体中破壳而出。最后，一根子实体从蚂蚁尸体中长出，开始向雨林的地面播撒孢子，它们将在这里感染更多的蚂蚁。这有点像异形破胸而出的场景，只是在真菌破头而出时，这只蚂蚁已经很幸运地死去了。


Kamikaze horsehair worm (Paragordius tricuspidatus)
自杀的马尾毛虫(Paragordius tricuspidatus)
One of these worms can grow up to a foot long, and look like a cooked piece of spaghetti. But to get to that point, it needs a house cricket or grasshopper to do its bidding.
这种虫子一只就可以长到一英尺长，看起来像一根煮熟的意面。但是为达到这个目标，它需要一只蟋蟀或者蝗虫当它的寄主。
First, a tiny horsehair worm larva is eaten by the larva of another insect, such as a mosquito or mayfly. Once this emerges from the water, a cricket or grasshopper will snatch it up. Then the horsehair worm begins to develop inside the cricket in earnest.
首先，一只微小的马尾毛虫幼虫被一只昆虫的幼虫吞进肚子，比如蚊子或者蜉蝣的幼虫。一旦这只虫子从羽化出水，被一只蟋蟀或者蝗虫抓住。然后这只马尾毛虫开始在这只蟋蟀或者蝗虫的体内生长发育。
But the worm's final stage of development takes place in water. The cricket wouldn't normally swim, or even hang out near water, so the worm must get it there.
但是这只虫子发育的最后阶段要需要在水中进行。而蟋蟀通常不会下水，甚至不愿意呆在水体附近，所以这虫子必须迫使它去那里。
By altering the functions of the cricket's central nervous system, the worm coerces it into jumping slap bang into the nearest body of water. The hapless cricket then drowns itself, allowing the horsehair worm to emerge and reproduce.
通过改变蟋蟀中枢神经系统的功能，这只虫子迫使它猛然跳入最近的水体中。然后，这只不幸的蟋蟀结束了自己的生命，让这只马尾毛虫破腹而出，繁衍后代。
From the outside, you wouldn't be able to tell if a cricket had been infected, but neurologically, the worm is in control. Ben Hanelt of the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, who studies the worms, says he has seen a whopping 32 worms pushing themselves out of one luckless host.
从外表看，你无法判断一只蟋蟀是否已被感染，但是这虫子已经控制了它的神经系统。阿尔伯克基城新墨西哥大学的本.哈内特，专门研究这种虫子，他说他曾看到过一只不幸的寄主体内挤进了多达32只马尾毛虫。








Castrator barnacles (Sacculina sp.)
蟹奴(Sacculina sp.)
If you think making a cricket believe it can swim is impressive, this parasitic barnacle takes body-snatching to another level.
如果你觉得让一只蟋蟀下水游泳已让你惊叹不已，那么这种寄生藤壶把身体控制提高到了另一个层次。


A Sacculina barnacle enters a host crab by finding a chink in its claw joints. The barnacle sheds its hard shell and squeezes itself in. At this point it looks more like a slug than a typical barnacle stuck to the underside of a boat.
一只蟹奴藤壶找到螃蟹爪子关节上的缝隙，然后钻进寄主体内。这只藤壶脱去它的坚硬外壳，把自己挤进寄主的身体里，这时它看上去更像一是鼻涕虫，而不是一只典型的附着在船底的藤壶。
It then sets up home, leeching off the crab's nutrients and turning it into the vehicle that will allow it to reproduce. Once fully-grown, the barnacle looks more like a soft, pulsating egg yolk.
然后它开始做窝，吸取这只螃蟹的营养，把它变成一台交通工具供自己繁殖之用。一旦完全长成，这只藤壶看来看更像一只软软的，跳动着的蛋黄。
If the crab is female, Sacculina forces it to care for the millions of barnacle larvae as if they were her own. But if the crab is male, it will be feminised in order to do the same thing. Not only is it rendered infertile, it grows a larger abdomen to carry the barnacle's young, its gonads shrink, and it stops developing its fighting claws.
如果这只螃蟹是雌性的，蟹奴会强迫它照顾上百万的藤壶幼虫，就像照顾螃蟹自己的幼虫，可如果这只螃蟹是雄性的，它会被雌性化以便做同样的事情。这只螃蟹不仅会丧失生育能力，而且腹部会膨大，里面装着藤壶的幼体，螃蟹的性腺则萎缩了，它也长不会用来战斗的大螯。


Green-banded broodsac (Leucochloridium paradoxum)
彩蚴吸虫
If you see a snail with two beautiful eye stalks, pulsating with emerald- and olive-green stripes and dappled with charcoal grey flecks capped off with a maroon dab, be impressed. You're not just looking at a pimped-out snail, you're looking at a snail infected with a parasitic flatworm.
如果你看见一只蜗牛有两只漂亮的眼柄，翠绿色和橄榄色的条纹有规律地闪动，顶部点缀着深灰色斑点和栗色色块，引人注目。你看到的，不只是一条招摇过市的蜗牛，也是一条感染了扁虫的蜗牛。
The green-banded broodsac first squirms its way into the stalks of the snail, so that they look like juicy, pulsing, brightly-coloured caterpillars. This is just the kind of snack nearby birds are in the mood for.
彩蚴吸虫首先扭动身体钻出蜗牛的眼柄，让它们看起来像是多汁，蠕动、色彩艳丽的毛虫。这正是附近鸟儿们的那种可口小食。

Then the worm manipulates the snail's behaviour. In 2013, Wanda Wesolowska and Tomasz Weslowski of Wroclaw University in Poland found that the infected snails behaved differently from their apparently non-infected counterparts. They positioned themselves in more exposed and better-lit places, situated higher in the vegetation. This probably makes the snails more conspicuous for foraging birds.
然后，这只虫子操纵这只蜗牛的行为。2013年，波兰弗罗茨瓦夫大学的旺达 威索洛瓦斯卡和托马斯 威斯洛斯基发现被感染的蜗牛其行为明显有异于未被感染的同类。它们把自己置于更为暴露和更显眼的地方，蔬菜的高处。这可能使蜗牛更被觅食的鸟儿发现。
Once eaten by the bird, the worm can reproduce, and the cycle continues.
一旦被鸟儿吃掉，这只虫子就能繁殖后代，继续轮回。