{"id":2465,"date":"2014-10-02T17:48:47","date_gmt":"2014-10-02T08:48:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2014-10-02\/2465"},"modified":"2014-10-02T17:48:47","modified_gmt":"2014-10-02T08:48:47","slug":"a-really-gross-discovery-on-the-way-into-an-otherwise-beautiful-temple","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2014-10-02\/2465","title":{"rendered":"A Really Gross Discovery On The Way Into an Otherwise Beautiful Temple"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D4 + Nikkor 24mm f\/1.4 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>400 sec, f<\/span>\/1.4, ISO 280 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nScene of the Discovery<\/span>\nentrance to the Rurikou-in Temple (\u7460\u7483\u5149\u9662),<\/span> Kyoto Japan\nNov 2012\n\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n

More from the archives as I wade through my photo library, this time a\ngross<\/span> discovery in November 2012. On our way<\/span> into the Rurikou-in Temple\n(\u7460\u7483\u5149\u9662)<\/span> in Kyoto, Damien and I discovered<\/span> a weird<\/span> wire-like “<\/span>thing”<\/span>\ntwisting and withering energetically on the steps.<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D4 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>400 sec, f<\/span>\/2.5, ISO 2500 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nThin and Wirelike<\/span>\ncurling\/uncurling haphazardly, almost violently\n\u3081\u3061\u3083\u30a4\u30e4\uff01\u30cf\u30ea\u30ac\u30cd\u30e0\u30b7<\/a>\u3067\u3059\u3002\n\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D4 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>400 sec, f<\/span>\/2.5, ISO 2000 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nShoe for Scale<\/span>\n\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n

I had never seen anything like it. My first<\/span>\nthought was that it was a piece<\/span> of wire that was\ncaught by the wind or something, but it quickly became apparent that it was\nalive. It was too<\/span> thin and hard to be any kind of\nworm I'd ever heard of, so I was<\/span> dumbfounded.<\/p>\n\n

It caught the attention of an old man going by, and he said that when he\nwas a kid,<\/span> these things would emerge from praying mantises. It was some<\/span>\nkind of parasite. They'd see a praying<\/span> mantis acting strangely, he said,\nand dip it in water and voila<\/i>, the worm-like thing would emerge from\nthe insect's rear end.<\/p>\n\n

Yuuuuuck!<\/p>\n\n

With this disquieting thought in mind, we left the worm-like organism to itself and continued up the steps, when lo and behold\na few<\/span> steps later we came to the body of a dazed<\/span> mantis...<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D4 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>400 sec, f<\/span>\/2.5, ISO 7200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nDiscarded Host<\/span>\n\u3064\u304b\u308c\u3089\u308c\u305f\u751f\u606f\u5730\n\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D4 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>400 sec, f<\/span>\/2.5, ISO 1600 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nOld Man Shows Us<\/span>\nwhere the wire\/worm thing had emerged from\n\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n

I did some investigation on the web, and this is more disgusting than I could<\/span> have imagined.<\/p>\n\n

The worm\/wire thing is called a horsehair worm<\/a> (the\nJapanese translates to “<\/span>wire bug”<\/span>), and they are the stuff nightmares are\nmade of.<\/p>\n\n

It turns out that the microscopic larva of the thing was drunk by some\ninsect, which was then eaten by the mantis. That's how the larve gets into\nthe mantis' gut. The larva<\/span> then grows big enough\nto bore out of the gut and into the body cavity, and grows there into\nadulthood (inside the mantis, eventually filling its entire body cavity; it\nends up being several times longer than the host). When it's ready to\nemerge, it wants to do so in water, so it somehow alters the mantis' brain\nto make it seek water like a thirst-crazed zombie. The\nmantis<\/span> normally drowns itself in the process, at which point the\nworm-thing crawls out to go live its happy life, make (microscopic) babies,\nand start the cycle all over again.<\/p>\n\n

Not for the faint of heart, but this video<\/a> explains it in short,\nand there are many videos showing them in action (in English<\/a>\nand in Japanese<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n

\u30cf\u30ea\u30ac\u30cd\u30e0\u30b7\u306e\u306f\u805e\u3044\u305f\u4e8b\u7121<\/span>\u304b\u3063\u305f\u3002\u9762\u767d<\/span>\u3044\u3067\u3059\u304c\u3001\u304b\u306a\u308a\u3044\u3084\u3067\u3059\u3002\u30d3\u30c7\u30aa\u306f\u3053\u3061\u3089<\/a>\u3067\u3059\u3002<\/p>\n\n

Gross. Just gross.<\/p>\n\n

This mantis was not near the water, so maybe it was dying and the worm decided to bail early. I dunno.<\/span> Yuck.<\/p>\n\n

And so to not<\/b> end on that thought, here is a quick<\/span> look at the wonderful moss just inside the entrance to the temple...<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D4 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>400 sec, f<\/span>\/2.5, ISO 2500 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\n\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D4 + Nikkor 50mm f\/1.4 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>400 sec, f<\/span>\/1.4, ISO 1100 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\n\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D4 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>400 sec, f<\/span>\/2.5, ISO 5600 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\n\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More from the archives as I wade through my photo library, this time a gross discovery in November 2012. On our way into the Rurikou-in Temple (\u7460\u7483\u5149\u9662) in Kyoto, Damien and I discovered a weird wire-like \"thing\" twisting and withering energetically on the steps.<\/p>

I had never seen anything like it. My first thought was that it was a piece of wire that was caught by the wind or something, but it quickly became apparent that it was alive. It was too thin and hard to be any kind of worm I'd ever heard of, so I was dumbfounded.<\/p>

It [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,1,2,10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2465"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2465\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}