Comments on: Insect parasites are like a box of chocolates…

By: al-rayyan

al-rayyan — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 18:11:53 +0000

way to go….

By: wetlandstom

wetlandstom — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 20:50:18 +0000

You get and A+ for this post. Really neat information, an videos.

Tom

By: Miriam Goldstein

Miriam Goldstein — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 01:48:10 +0000

I’m really glad you enjoyed it – someone who calls a brain-eating parasitic fungus “delightful” is definitely my target audience. :>)

The reason that so many of the scary poisonous insects live in the Amazon is because tropical rain forests have lots of food but also lots of predation. A huge body size and secondary defenses like poison are metabolically expensive to maintain, so you need lots of food (which you can get in year-round warmth) and sufficient motivation (as in, immediate death if you’re undefended).

By: Justin

Justin — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 22:05:22 +0000

Wow, great post with a delightful set of links…I found it all fascinating. Keep up the good work. I read your blog everyday, great content!

I wonder why the beetle which spurts a boiling mixture of chemicals from its read end did not make the list….so many scary insects…so little time. And why do they all live in the Amazon? What happened there to make all the insects so tempermental?

Have a good one…