THE GIANT FOREST ANT (
Camponotus gigas) is one of the largest ant species in the world.
It measure about 2.5cm or one inch in length. With its size and huge mandibles, it must
appear formidable to the smaller denizens of the forest understorey. However, like the many
other insect species which inhabit the Malaysian forest, it also has its predators in the food
chain, and is also susceptible to parasitic attacks.
This writer encountered a specimen of
C. gigas which had been completely ravaged by
a fungal parasite in the Ulu Ampang Recreation Forest (just outside Kuala Lumpur) in early
1995. The ant, agitated as the parasite grew insidiously inside its body, had climbed onto a mango
sapling, about two feet tall (less than a metre).
Perhaps wracked by persistent pain, it had then clenched its jaws, biting into the drip
tip of a leaf. Here its shrivelled body hung, and death was certain for this giant ant when
the fruiting bodies of the fungus grew through its exoskeleton at the joints.
At a talk for members of the Malaysian Nature Society at FRIM (Forest Research Institute,
Malaysia), Kepong, in March 1995, mycologist Dr Roy Watling, of the Royal Botanic Gardens,
Edinburgh, said this parasitic fungus is a species of
Cordyceps closely related to
Cordyceps sinensis or the "tung chung chou" of Chinese traditional medicine.
The modus operandi of this parasite, as related by Dr Watling, goes like this: The minute,
airborne spores of the fungus find their way into the tracheae of an insect, such as the
Giant Forest Ant, as it breathes through its spiracles or pores. The mycelia of the fungus then
starts to grow, absorbing the host’s body tissues as they spread. The mycelia avoid the
vital organs so that the host does not die immediately but continue to provide nourishment to
the growing fungus. Amazing, isn't it?
With this alien organism taking over its body, the ant is somehow compelled to climb to the
highest point of a tree that it is able to reach in its weakened state. It clings onto a leaf,
usually one that is near the top. Here, with mandibles clamped onto the tip