So, I've signed up to take Entomology in the spring, and I have to say, I've become a bit obsessed with bugs. Truthfully, it is pretty disturbing since I would have cringed at the thought about a year ago. So, when I came upon this article when looking for my last blog topic, I HAD to post about it. 

This article discussed a pretty gnarly little bug that takes over the brain of an ant then bursts out of the ant's head upon maturation, ripping the ant's head from its body. Pretty cool if you ask me. These bugs were discovered over 20 years ago when an entomologist from the University of Texas was studying potential natural enemies of fire ants. He found that South America doesn't have the ant problem that we do in the United States, and found that the ants there were battling flies. The flies were so small, though, that he doubted they really could impact the ant populations just based on their battling. That is when he discovered that the ants had pupae in their heads. These flies were laying eggs in the ants and the maggots made their way into the ants' heads. Then the fly larvae take over control of the ant's brain. They keep the ant inside the ant colony to be safe and to eat plenty of food.

Once the maggot is ready to pupate, it forces the ant to leave the colony and travel to a highly humid place so that the maggot can continue its development. The pupa eventually decapitates the ant and matures before leaving the head. 

Quite amazing if you ask me. You all should really read the article, as it's description of all this is really cool.