Week 1 of Bio

This past week we learnt about relationships between organisms and what effect they had on each other. There were two that really stood out to me: the relationship between Follicle Mites and Humans, the Cortyceps Fungus and insects.

So, on the eyelashes of any human right now, there are Follicle Mites. These microscopic mites are attracted to the sebaceaus gland behind the eyelash, an yummy and warm environment for the mite to live. They get on you and then burrow into your eyelash follicle and make it their home. They only live for a day or so and do no harm to humans. This was an example of commensalism.

The Cortyceps Fungus was really cool! It is a fungus that has many different types, each pertaining to only one type of insects. It gets into the body of the insect and slowly kills it from the inside out, first attacking the nervous system. Insects obviously die from the relationship but the Cortyceps Fungus shoots out new heads of the plant throughout the dead insects body and use the body as a starting point as a new farm. The deadly fungus to insects actually keeps the numbers of the population down keeping it in balance with the surroundings as to not have too many of one insect, which would then throw off the scale. It is so highly deadly that even if some insect groups smell it they will be the fungi's next prey. Ants who get the fungus are first paralyzed and as soon as another worker ant sees them under the influence of the fungus they carry them far away from the colony in attempt to protect the others. Where Cortyceps Fungus benefits and the insect doesn't (and even dies) a Parasitic Relationship is occurring.

The relationships and the way these organisms use something else to keep them alive is quite fascinating to me and I can't wait to learn what we talk about this week! Until then, Happy Biology learning!

Quote of the week: "That fly is a wanna-BEE" haha

From Mr. Hillegass' whiteboard on Tues. 8th Sept