Peter Watts: Conscious Ants and Human Hives

 This post goes through the lecture by Peter Watts, expanding on the references he makes.

Are ants (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) capable of self recognition? (2015)

In front of a mirror, and consequently of their reflection view, ants behaved otherwise than when in front of nestmates seen through a glass. Seeing nestmates through a glass, ants behaved as usual, i.e. without taking close notice of them. In front of a mirror, they rapidly moved their head and antennae, to the right and the left, touched the mirror, went away from it and stopped, cleaning then sometimes their legs and antennae. As long as they could not see themselves in a mirror, ants with a blue dot painted on their clypeus did not try to remove it. Set in front of a mirror, ants with such a blue dot on their clypeus tried to clean themselves, while ants with a brown painted dot ‒ of the same color as that of their cuticle ‒ on their clypeus and ants with a blue dot on their occiput did not clean themselves. Very young ants did not present such behavior. Contrary to the other kinds of marking, a blue dot on the clypeus induced aggressiveness in nestmates. The front part of the head is thus an essential species specific character for leading to acceptance. Although further experiments are required, preferentially on ants and social hymenoptera with an excellent visual perception, our observations suggest that some ants can recognize themselves when confronted with their reflection view, this potential ability not necessary implicating some self awareness.

Carlo Michelstaedter

Carlo Michelstaedter

Carlo Michelstaedter (1887-1910), Italian philosopher and poet. Not much is known about him. I read about him from The Conspiracy Against the Human Race.

Michelstaedter's biographers and critics have speculated that his despair of humanity's ability to become disentangled from its puppet strings was, in conjunction with accidental factors, the cause of his suicide by gunshot the day after he finished his dis­sertation. Michelstaedter could not accept a stellar fact of human life: that none of us has control over what we are--a truth that extirpates all hope if what you want to be is invulnerably self­ possessed ("persuaded") and without subjection to a life that would fit you within the limits of its unrealities ("rhetoric," a word oddly used by Michelstaedter). 

We are defined by our limitations; without them, we cannot suffice as functionaries in the big show of conscious existence. The farther you progress toward a vision of our species without limiting conditions on your consciousness, the farther you drift away from what makes you a person among persons in the human community.

Transcending all illusions and their emergent activities --- having absolute control of what we are, and not what we need to be, so that we may survive the most unsavory facts of life and death --- would untether us from the moorings of our self-limited selves. The lesson: "Let us love our limitations, for without them no­ body would be left to be somebody." 

How to eat parasites: a guide for the perplexed

Let's continue our cursed journey of learning all about parasites! Today we will learn how to eat parasites: what to eat, how to eat them, and what to avoid.

The main source I rely on is

Overstreet, Robin M., ‘Presidential Address: Flavor Buds and Other Delights’, Journal of Parasitology, 89.6 (2003), 1093–1107 <https://doi.org/10/dv2tdk>

Tapeworm diet

Kind of a meme really. The tapeworm diet idea is simple: if there's a tapeworm in your intestine, they would eat your food and get fat for you, so that you won't get fat.

Typical advertisement from early 20th century

While tapeworms usually do not make one sick, they can block the intestine if they get too big or too many, which is life-threatening. That, and they don't work that well for losing weight.

Also this delicious factoid:

The cysticerci of the pork tapeworm, Taenia solium, have been fed by unprincipled medical advisors to unwitting Hollywood actresses in the 1930s as "slimming pills," producing adults in the intestine (Russell-Hunter, 1979).

Rat King Parasite appreciation day

Ever heard of rat kings (Rattenkönig)? It is a real, rare, and disturbing occurrence.

A rat king is a collection of rats whose tails are intertwined and bound together by one of several possible mechanisms, such as entangling material like hair or sticky substances like sap or gum or getting tied together. Historically, this alleged phenomenon is particularly associated with Germany. There are several specimens preserved in museums but very few instances of rat kings have been observed in modern times.

Source

Such  "rosette" ("little rose") shapes of rats are called "rat kings", because the king of rats would sit on top of the knot in the center, being carried around on its throne like a king.

This phenomenon has been reported extensively, so I will not do it. Read this article if you are interested.

The placenta wars

The border zone or transition zone or “ Umlagerungszone” marks the division between the fetal and maternal tissues. As might be expected it is not a sharp line, for it is in truth the fighting line where the conflict between the maternal cells and the invading trophoderm takes place, and it is strewn with such of the dead on both sides as have not already been carried off the field or otherwise disposed of. In the earlier stages there is even more evidence of the deadly nature of the conflict than in the later stages.

Johnstone, R. W. (1914). Contribution to the Study of the Early Human Ovum, page 258.

The placenta appears to be a ruthless parasitic organ existing solely for the maintenance and protection of the fetus, perhaps too often to the disregard of the maternal organism. 

Ernest W. Page. (1939). The relation between hydatid moles, relative ischemia of the gravid uterus, and the placental origin of eclampsia

The placenta is simply a neuroendocrine parasite.

P. J. Lowry (2008). 

Today we take a long, hard look at the human placenta, find out how it is similar to a parasite, a tumor, and a battlefield between the mother and the fetus, and how this makes pregnancy much more risky than it could have been.

To start our journey, think about this question: why is pregnancy so dangerous? The reason is that, in a pregnancy, there are two bodies, instead of one, and they have different interests. They cooperate, but they also fight each other.

The fetus is selfish: it wants itself to be strong. The mother is also selfish: it would rather not devote too much energy to the fetus, because if it does, it would not have enough energy to make another fetus. This is the secret war, taking place on the placenta.

Unless otherwise noted, I'm generally referring to Haig, David, ‘Genetic Conflicts in Human Pregnancy’, (1993).

The ignored placenta  

The placenta... the place where the embryo meets the mother, where the embryo receives the nutrients and the mother receives the waste products. It is a vital organ, but rarely given a thought at all. Think about all the vital organs: brain, heart, lung, stomach, guts, liver, skin, muscles, bones, hand, arm, feet, leg, ovary... each having its own rich implications in culture.

• "Screaming at the top of the lungs"
• "Brain of the team"
• "Right to bear arms"
• "Got guts"
• "Don't drink too much or your liver would complain"
• ...

But what about the ignored organs? The pancreas is all but forgotten, and we can't really blame that. It's small, and has been dismissed as merely a meaty cushion until about 19th century. Even now, its only claim to fame is that it makes insulin, which keeps us from becoming diabetic.

Genitalia, sperm, sex: evolutionary divergence.

Sometimes a good idea just keeps getting rediscovered. The eye has evolved many times independently, and parasitism has evolved for no less than 60 times. This is called convergent evolution. And of course, it has its evil twin... divergent evolution.

Consider this picture below, of the complex shapes of closely related species of Bombus (bumblebees). These species are so similar that the main way to distinguish them is by looking at their penises...

Source: The Evolution of Primary Sexual Characters in Animals, Figure 4.1

Let's read: Parasite of the Day, Part 3

https://dailyparasite.blogspot.com/2020/04/armillifer-armillatus.html
For a multistage parasite, it usually treats its final host well, but the intermediate host unwell. Here, a cheetah ate a snake and got infested by parasites that mistook it for an intermediate host. This resulted in severe infestation.

A male leopard at Kruger National Park, South Africa, which became heavily infected with tongue worm Armillifer armillatus. Researchers found hundreds of A. armillatus larvae throughout the leopard's body cavity, encysted or crawling through the liver, spleen, intestine, and lungs. 

the leopard might have eaten snakes which were infected with female tongue worms that were full of fertilised eggs. After the eggs were liberated from the adult tongue worm's body, they hatched and enter into the next stage of development - the nymphs.