Tarantula with strange, antler-like fungal appendages

This unhappy fellow is a tarantula that has been colonized by cordyceps, a fungus that "invades and eventually replaces the host tissue." Paging Mr Mieville, your subconscious mind is manifesting again.

Tarantula infected with Cordyceps (i.imgur.com) (via Super Punch)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: bugs • Delightful Creatures • horror • photos • reddit • Science • Weird

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Katey Corrigan

Unicorn. Chaser. Please.
- http://www.flickr.com/photos/stefan_e_jones/ Stefan Jones
  
  They had one ready, but the unicorn turned out to have Athletes’ Hoof, ringworm, and boils on its ass.
- Touch Sensitive
  
  [looks at ad above] Here.. have a Polio plush.
http://fallsastar.com Crashproof

Between this and Liefeld, I think it’s time for a unicorn chaser.
- social_maladroit
  
  You know what unicorns really are, don’t you? Horses infected with cordyceps.
  - http://www.facebook.com/jaytraveller Jay Sanchez
    
    *snif*
joeposts

:-(

You wouldn’t like him to post those pics of your fungal infection, eh Cory? WHAT HAS BOING BOING BECOME?
http://www.KladniFigures.com/ Scooter Jackson

Cordyceps = nightmare fuel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuKjBIBBAL8
- http://www.facebook.com/people/Trent-Baker/100000123865597 Trent Baker
  
  There is a pretty creepy Puesdopod story where the fungi develops a mutation that can infect humans 252: The Cord.
  - http://www.matthewpetty.com/ Matthew Petty
    
    Good call. Every species has its cord.
Terranex

This kind of thing horrifies me. What if some day a fungai evolves to grown like this out of someones cheek? Or a puffball growing on someones neck? So horrific.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  Uh, dude?
  - fuzzyfuzzyfungus
    
    Fanged hatred bunny would like to note that, while pretty lousy, papilloma virus induced keratinacious carcinomas are quite different from ghastly fungal growths.
    - Antinous / Moderator
      
      Different story, but same ending.
    - http://www.facebook.com/vlad.korniyenko Vladik Korniyenko
      
      FUCKING CREEPY!!!
    - benher
      
      Aw Jeez Antinous..
- blueelm
  
  Actually, people do get fungal infections that are similarly serious. Mucormycosis is a good place to start. Also, we often can treat fungal infections these days so we don’t see them progress to their extremes much. Left alone if the person is unfortunate, they can get really really ugly.
http://twitter.com/anne_athema World Rocker

I feel kind of bad for that tarantula.
http://imcravingpresidency.tumblr.com/ SedanChair

Kanedaaaaa
- Bucket
  
  Tetsuoooooooooo!
  - benher
    
    Kaoriiiiiiii!
smut clyde

When I become world dictator, it will be obligatory for any blog mentioning Cordyceps infections to include a link to Attack of the Mushroom People.
noah django

looks like the Lectroid ships in Buckaroo Banzai. poor li’l guy.
- http://twitter.com/HubrisSonic HubrisSonic
  
  but a very bad design…
robuluz

WAIT…. it’s still alive… it’s trying to say something…..

kiiiiillll meeee…..

*Cue flamethrower*
sean

That’s what he gets for being a tarantula.
smut clyde

Now wondering how much one could sell it for to a Chinese herbalist.
itshugh

There’s also a very good Marc Laidlaw story about the thing in the Vandermeer’s weird fiction anthology; http://weirdfictionreview.com/2012/05/leng/
- http://www.xradiograph.com/ OtherMichael
  
  To get in a Vandermeer anthology, don’t you basically have to write about squid or fungi, anyway?
  
  Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Nor homicidal goat-brained clown-clones brewed in the black-lab of a secret-city, either.
vrplumber

I for one welcome our clingy fungal overlords.
http://ok-cleek.com/blogs cleek

Mieville?
VanderMeer!
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_KEONFA33E2O6GGE4QX225HA5IY Jim Huinink

Unlike all the rest of the tarantulas in the world, that is f#ckin scary.
DewiMorgan

With just a slight change in circumstance, this could make excellent symbiotic camouflage.
- Rich Keller
  
  This is actually a photo of the Sonoran mimic octopus pretending to be a tarantula infected with cordyceps.
jennybean42

I feel like I should be harvesting this for a potion in skyrim….
- Rich Keller
  
  Obligatory “I used to be a tarantula like you until cordyceps grew antlers in the knee” comment.
hassan-i-sabbah

Arachnoid Jackelope.
http://www.iandicomputing.com Clifton

Holy god, please add this to the list of things I never want to know anything further about. Amen.

What I’m trying to say is, “AAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”
James Penrose

You *really* have to wonder about a god that would spend time designing such lovely little things to let loose on his creation, eh fundies?
- fuzzyfuzzyfungus
  
  Only the fundies who aren’t actively drawn to the fact that their god is the most powerful sadist in the universe really have to wonder…
http://northierthanthou.com/ northierthanthou

Poor little guy.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_VHWDK3Q4LT5LOON4U42KGFS7YY PatriciaB

Cordyceps is used in Chinese and herbal medicine, and advertised on the web as a mushroom super food. The horn grows where?
GatoRanch

I’m quite familiar with cordyceps but this is quite a spectacular photo because of the formation and because I don’t think I’ve seen a tarantula with this growth. Here’s a moth I found years back with a similar fantastic growth:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gato-ranch/3945074717/

Also, there’s an entire related group on Flickr is anyone cares to see more:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/entomopathic/pool/with/3945074717/
Peter Yard

Sorry but this reminds me so much of John Carpenter’s, “The Thing”. Creepy. I must save this link and image for when someone tells me how kind mother nature is.
- fuzzyfuzzyfungus
  
  They don’t tell you that ‘nature red in tooth and claw’ is for the lucky ones who get to die relatively quickly…
tamgoddess

I just looked at my face in the mirror because I knew I had never had this expression on it before. Then I was re-traumatized.

No seriously. Where is the fucking unicorn chaser?
- http://www.xradiograph.com/ OtherMichael
  
  And fucking unicorns would erase this from your mind?
  
  Have you never seen the post-coital female unicorn paralyze her mate and implant the fertilized egg-sac ?
  
  Much less witness those creepy-pointies eating their way free….
http://robvincent.net/ Rob T Firefly

> Something is crawling up my leg. I think it’s a Taranshula
http://twitter.com/ahaislip Alexander Haislip

I think I hear “A Voice in the Night.”
Jessica N.

Is that tarantula still alive???