Oh Man! This is one of the weirdest things I have come across yet. A Phorid Fly (aka the Humpback Fly), specifically the Pseudacteon Tricuspis species (pictures at the right), lays it eggs on the head of a fire ant. When the eggs hatch the larva burrow into the ants head and consume the contents. When the larve is matured and ready to leave the ants head, it releases a chemical the makes the ants head fall off. The ant then leaves the ants corpse and goes in search of a mate. Then the cycle repeats. Now, tell me that isn't weird. For more infomation I found two good sites. The first one,
Fire Ant Research has some great pictures of the flys and the ants (well ant heads anyway). This is where the picture above was obtained. The second site,
Killerplants.com doesn't have any pictures but its got a lot of good information otherwise. So, if this interests you, check out one of those sites. You can also search on google and fine tons more info. Search for "pseudacteon tricuspis", "Phorid Fly", or "Humpback Fly."
