( intro music )
 Parasites are not degenerates,
they're actually maybe the most
 successful life form on earth.
 And they do all sorts of
 amazing things.
 They were using their hosts
 for all sorts of
 nefarious purposes
 to get what they needed.
 If you see a ladybug huddled
 over some little bit of fluff,
 you're looking at a
 zombie bodyguard.
( applause )
So originally when they were
organizing this talk,
they were trying to
convince us to,
dress up and I wasn't quite
willing to do that.
But, I did bring
my favorite T-shirt, so...
If you can't tell,
that's a schistosome there.
( audience laughing )
So, my goal in this
in photographing these
creatures was to...
get past this visceral aversion
we all have towards parasites,
and try to show how amazing
these creatures really are!
So, if I'm going to try to
convince you
that parasites are cool,
I'm going to start with
the star of the show.
 So this is a ladybug
 standing guard over
 the cocoon of a wasp
 and the way this works,
 is that wasp lays an egg,
 it injects an egg
 into that ladybug
and the egg hatches and
it grows inside the ladybug
and the larval wasp inside
actually knows
to avoid the vital organs
of that ladybug
because if it chews
on those vital organs
it will kill the ladybug and
it will die too.
So it avoids the vital organs
and when it's ready to come out,
it pushes its way out of the
abdomen of that ladybug
and it spins its cocoon.
And the problem is
this cocoon is a
very vulnerable stage
in the lifecycle of this wasp.
It's just sitting there immobile
ready to be eaten by
any predator that walks by.
So, that's why it's gotten this
ladybug to stand guard over it.
 And the amazing thing is
 this ladybug will sit there
 twitching for days over this,
 this wasp
and if it's able to survive
the seven days
that the wasp takes to
develop into an adult
the ladybug can
actually recover.
The mind control can wear off
and that ladybug can go to
re-grow its internal organs
and go on to reproduce.
 This is the wasp
 that's responsible for that,
 this is
 Dinocampus coccinellae,
 it's, she's barely
 a centimeter long
 and I can tell
 she's a female, both
 because she's got this
 ovipositor at the end,
 the stinger
 that she uses
 to inject the eggs
and also because this species
is parthenogenetic, which means
it doesn't need to fertilize
its eggs to reproduce,
it can clone itself,
and so it injects an egg
into the ladybug,
It does not need to be
fertilized,
and all of those eggs will
develop to be more females.
The entire species is female.
Actually there has been
four or five males
that has been identified
over the course of
studying this creature and
frankly I don't know
how that really works,
I don't know how
parthenogenesis works.
It's crazy.
and it will have to be the topic
of another discussion.
Now ladybugs are
not the only ones
that get turned into
bodyguards.
There's another wasp
in this family Braconidae
that infects caterpillars
 and in this case it injects
 several dozen eggs
 at the same time.
 Those eggs hatch
 inside the caterpillar
 and just like the ladybug
 they know to avoid
 the internal organs
 of the caterpillar,
 just like the ladybug
they have a virus that
helps them.
It's a different kind of virus
but in this case the virus
tricks the immune system
of the caterpillar to protect,
to hide these invaders
and the virus actually
changes the metabolism
of the caterpillar
so that it gorges itself
and it prevents the caterpillar
from transforming
into an adult,
so the virus turns
the caterpillar
into a feeding machine
for these wasp larva.
 So this is a video of this
 process. It starts with the
 adult wasp stinging and
 injecting those eggs
 into a newly hatched
caterpillar. Those caterpillars
then go about their normal life
 for the next week
 feeding and growing
 and waiting for those
 wasp larva to emerge.
 When they are ready
 they chew their way
 through the skin
 of the caterpillar.
 And they come out
 by the dozens.
 So they actually
 spin their cocoon
 as they are emerging
 from the caterpillar.
 The amazing thing
 about this process is that
 the caterpillar survives,
 it wakes up,
it crawls on the top of the pile
 of cocoons and it spins that
 additional layer
 of protective silk.
 And the reason for this,
 the entire purpose
 of the protection
 is to prevent this.
 This is a hyperparasitoid wasp
 injecting its egg
 into the parasitic wasp
 that just emerged
 from the caterpillar.
 So an additional layer
 of parasitism
above the
mind controlling one.
It's pretty cool.
So this theme of
trying to protect
that delicate larval stage...
that pupation,
that's a common theme.
And there's another wasp
in different group
 that uses a different approach
 than the bodyguard style.
 What it does is,
 it catches the spider
 and lays an egg on its back.
 So this is a spider
 that lives in the
 palm plantations of Costa Rica
 and it's got a wasp larva
 hanging on its back.
 This is one that
 has hatched out
 and it's feeding on hemolymph,
 the blood of that spider.
And what it does
when it's ready to pupate,
instead of turning that spider
into a bodyguard,
it gets the spider to build
a special kind of web.
And so normally webs are
designed to catch insects,
this web is designed
to support the weight
of the cocoon.
And so the wasp larva waits
until the spider's done
building this web,
it then kills it and
then hangs its cocoon
safely off the floor
of the forest.
 So this is the stage
 where the spider has just
 finished building that web
 and the wasp returns the favor
 by killing it
 and eating it.
 And this is that
 specialized web.
 And you can tell
 what the spiders built
 because
 the spider silk is white
 and wasp silk is yellow.
 So this is a video
 starting with,
 after the spider
 has been killed.
 That wasp larva is feeding on
 every last drop
 of the spider's blood in order
 to store up enough energy
 to transform into an adult.
 And then when it's ready
 to transform,
 it's finished digesting
 that spider
 it then drops its own silk
 off of the spider web
 and spins its cocoon.
 And you can actually see
 how it uses its head
 to hollow out the cavity
 inside of that cocoon.
These... these wasps
have figured out
this mind control thing
pretty well.
And the, the queen of
all mind controlling wasps is
 the emerald cockroach wasp.
 So this is a wasp that hunts
 cockroaches to feed its young
 And it is more cunning
 and sophisticated
than your typical predator like
a lion or a shark.
So what it does is, it starts
by paralyzing the cockroach.
 It stings it
 right behind its head,
 paralysis the cockroach
 and then it snakes
 its stinger into the brain
 of the cockroach
 where it has special censors
 so that it can grope
 around the brain
 and find exactly the part
 that is responsible
 for generating the motivation
 for movement.
And it disables that part.
And what that means is
the cockroach is
fully functional,
all of its muscles work
but it cannot generate
the will to move on its own.
Instead it takes its queues
from the wasp.
So the wasp comes back,
 it holds the antenna of that
 cockroach,
 with its mouth
 and it leads it
 as if walking a dog
 to its burrow,
where it lays an egg
on its belly
and buries it to be
eaten alive by its babies.
And those wasp larva
just like the others
they know how to avoid
the internal organs
they can keep it fresh
as long as possible
and on top of that,
they actually smear this
disinfecting substance
on the inside of the cockroach
to keep it from rotting.
 This is a
 horsehair worm,
 it's using its host as both
 housing and transportation.
 So in this case,
 the worm grows up
 inside the cricket
 and once it gets
 a little cramped in there,
it wants to come out.
And really this worm
has a free living part
of its life stage.
It doesn't live his whole life
in the cricket.
But the problem is
where it comes out,
it has to be wet,
it's an aquatic worm
when it comes out.
So if it came out in dry land
it would dry up and die.
So it makes the cricket
go find water
so that it can jump in,
commit suicide
and that worm can go on
to continue its life cycle.
So, in that pond
or in that stream
the worm will go find a mate,
it will lay a bunch of eggs,
those eggs hatch and they
burrow into mosquito larva.
And they insist themselves
in a mosquito larva,
so when the mosquitoes emerge
and they fly out,
their cysts are still there
and that mosquito lives
its normal life,
it dies on land and
it gets eaten by a cricket.
And the worm cyst
actually knows
when it's inside of a cricket
and that's when it knows,
it can start developing. That's
how the life cycle continues.
 This is an ant
 that has been infected by
 'Ophiocordyceps'.
 And this fungus,
 it gets the ant
 to crawl up
 the stalk of a plant
 out till the end of a leaf
 and it kills the ant there
 so that when the fungus sends
 its reproductive
 structures out
 those spores are
 better able to disperse
 onto the forest floor.
This is actually a really
diverse group of fungi
and each species of fungus
has its own host
and it gets its host
to clampdown
in different parts
of the plant.
Some of them are
at the tip of the leaf,
some of them are
on the underside,
some of them are
at the base of a tree
and it's thought that they
are manipulating their host
to maximize the ability
to disperse on to more ants.
And so they've actually shown
there are places
where the fungus is
getting the ant to die
above the foraging lines
of its colony.
So that when those
spores come out,
they're more likely
to get in contact
with more ants.
 And actually the white eye
 you see here,
 that's fungus as well.
 So what the fungus does is,
 it hollows out
 the entire inside of that ant
 and it just so happens
 that the exoskeleton
 right in front of eye,
 it's thin enough
 that you can see
 the fungal tissue
 through the eye membrane.
 So this is a video of an ant
 this is a
 different species of ant.
 That's also been
 infected by this
 cordyceps fungus--
 Ophiocordyceps fungus.
 It's in its last hour of life.
 It's just twitching there
and the fungus has forced it to
bite down on edge of this leaf.
 And what happens is that
 first night
 after that fungus
 kills the ant
 it bursts through,
 the weaker joints
 of the exoskeleton
 and spends the next week,
 growing a reproductive stock
 out of the back
 of the ant's head.
Now...
my favorite parasite
that I photographed
is the Rhizocephala.
 The Rhizocephala is a
 tiny little parasitic barnacle
 that infects sheep crabs.
 This is a sheep crab here.
 And what it does is it
 gets into the sheep crab
and if the sheep crab
started off as a male
it turns it into a female.
It feminizes the crab
and that's because
only female crabs
have this structure
that can house eggs.
And so the parasite waits
for this feminized male
to grow this egg chamber,
it lays its own eggs
in that egg chamber
and then it activates
the maternal care instinct
of this crab
so that it thinks
it's pregnant
and it will care for
the eggs of the parasite.
Then every two weeks,
those eggs mature
and they hatch out
and they go on to infect
more crabs.
So what you see here is
 every little speck
 in this photo
 is a newly hatched
 parasitic barnacle
 that is going out to infect
 a new crab.
 So let me, let me back up
 and tell little more about
 where the story came from,
 where the idea came from.
So I was working
with my editor Todd James
and you know, he just said
look we got to figure out
a fresh approach to this,
it's got to be
something different.
And you know, I agreed,
the pictures of parasites
I had seen to that point
were like jars of leeches or
a worm getting pulled out of
somebody's eye and its like--
They were very successful
in grossing you out,
but they really failed
in getting you to appreciate
how incredible
these creatures are.
But then there's also
the sake of this,
this problem of okay, what,
how do I light these creatures,
these parasites in a new way.
Because up until that point,
macro photography for me was
find a cool bug,
shine some light on it,
take a picture.
You know, you could make it
a sharp light,
you could make it soft light,
you could light if from
this way or that way,
that's about it.
I mean how do I,
how do I take this
to a next level?
How I find a
more interesting way
to light these creatures?
And I had this idea
while I was sitting
in my friend Stacy's apartment
in Oakland.
And I don't remember
what we're talking about
because I was distracted
by the quality of light
on her face.
She was sitting
in front of a window.
 This is Stacy in front of
 her window in Oakland
 and the window light was
 coming around her head,
 lighting the sides of her
 cheeks and her nose
 and showing
 the topography in a way,
 that I never really
 thought about before.
I thought how do
I scale this down
to a parasite level.
Can I use this
to light parasites
and show the shape and
contours in a new way?
And so I had my Stacy light,
I had my volcano light
I had this idea of how to
light backgrounds to emphasize
the drama and action going on,
but you know,
what does that really look like
to implement in the field.
Well, let me show you.
 Most of the work was done
 in hotel rooms.
 So this is a hotel room
 in Costa Rica,
 where I'm trying to
 photograph this
 spider being parasitized
 by a wasp
 there's buckets of spiders
 everywhere
 that I'm trying to hide from
 the housekeeping staff
 so they won't throw them out.
 And then, you know,
 hotel rooms really aren't
 well-designed for photography,
 so there is a lot of
 moving furniture around
 and in this case,
 what I'm trying to do is
 I'm trying to set up
 a time lapse
 of these fungus flowers
 in South Dakota, growing,
 and I borrowed this light
 that had been confiscated
 from an illegal marijuana
 growing operation in Spearfish
 ( laughter ) And had been
 donated to the University
 who then lent it to me.
 And after all this effort,
 it totally failed.
 It was not useful at all.
 And I ended up building
 a lot of my own contraptions,
 lighting contraptions
 in this case
 I was trying to use this
 fiber-optic linelight
 to build a makeshift scanner,
 to scan this plant
 because there's a
 beautiful quality of light
 that flatbed scanners
 produce on flowers
 and I wanted to try to
 make that and it
 again totally failed.
 It was
 a pain in the butt to use,
 it didn't really workout.
 This is the setup
 I used to photograph the cover
 in a lab in Montréal.
 And so I was able to set up
 in some research labs,
 which has some advantages
 and disadvantages.
 The main disadvantage
 is sometimes
 you don't have a lot of space,
 this is in Boulder
 at P. Johnson's lab
 where I'm trying to photograph
 this deformed frog.
Of all of these creatures,
though,
the most difficult
to photograph
was actually that cricket,
and I visited this lab
in New Mexico,
a couple of times
where Ben Hanelt had
these infected crickets
in his lab.
And the first time
they all died
the night before I got there,
the second time
they weren't ready
the worms took too long to,
to mature
so they weren't ready
when I got there
and I just said
you know what, forgot this
and I packed them into my bag
and I flew back with them
to California.
And so my housemates
at this point
are used to this
kind of nonsense
and one of them is a
documentary film maker
and so he filmed me,
photographing these
crickets, so...
 I kept them in the,
 in the hot water
 heater room,
 where they would stay warm.
 This is my kitchen.
 And the thing about these
 crickets and the worms
 is that you can actually tell
 when the worms are
 ready to come out.
 They actually turn dark brown,
 and you can see them
 coiled up
 inside the belly
 of these crickets.
 And so I'm setting up
 my fiber-optic lights
 and getting ready to
 photograph these things.
 Not my best hair day.
( laughter )
 Most of this stuff happens
 at 2 o'clock in
 the morning and so I
 sort of didn't remember that
 he was filming me that day.
 And so, I'm actually putting
 a layer of Rain X
 down on the glass
 and so that
 beads up the water nicely.
 And then I put the crickets
 in the fridge,
 for a few minutes
 to cool them down
 so they wouldn't hop
 all over the place.
 And the liquid that I'm using
 is not actually water,
 it's called cricket saline,
 it's a solution that mimics
 the internal chemistry
 of the cricket.
 So, that when the worms
 come out they don't freak out.
 They think they're still
 inside the cricket.
 So that picture took me about
 twenty-three days
 to figure out.
 Now, a lot of that I did at
 home and so it was not like
I was working on it,
24 hours a day,
some days it was only
a couple of hours, but
all the tricks with the Rain X,
with the fridge,
with the cricket saline.
These are not things
that I knew about
ahead of time.
There are things that
I just had to work out
on the fly, through one
iteration after the next.
And you figure out a problem,
or, you come across a problem
you just have to
figure out a solution.
The cricket's too jumpy,
the worm's freaking out,
the water
doesn't look right and
you just have to take what,
what you've solved
and build on that.
And so there was a point
early on in the story
where my editor, Todd
wanted to see my...
my progress on
the story and...
you know, he didn't really
have time to
look through all my pictures,
he wanted to send me--
he wanted me to send him
a small selection.
And really I wanted him to see
all my pictures because
I wanted to show him all the
different variations I did.
I assumed
he was going to tell me,
oh, go back and shoot that
from another angle
and I wanted to be
able to tell him,
'look man,
I tried all the angles.'
So, but he asked for,
he asked for a limited selection
and so I was scanning
through these pictures,
it was late at night
I was listening to some
electronic music
to keep me awake.
And all of a sudden this,
this images on my screen
started to sync up
with the music
I was listening to
and I had this idea that
'wait a minute!'
If I can just take
all of these images
and I can create
a stop motion
by playing them all
at 15 frames a second.
That way in five minutes
Todd can see every image
I have taken
and all the iterations
and variations
I did in between
and I just threw
the layer of music on top
just for, for kicks.
By the end of the story
I had 33,000 pictures
and even at
15 frames a second,
that's a very long video so
I cut that down and
here is the edited version
of that original...
Dubstep parasite music video.
( laughter )
( dubstep music )
( applause )
( outro music )
