Bugs within Bugs within Bugs

[catbirdseat]

I feel so much better now what I understand more about the bugs that periodically infest my orchid plants.

 

"So, the naturalists observe, the flea,

Hath smaller fleas that on him prey;

And these have smaller still to bite 'em;

And so proceed, ad infinitum"

-Jonathan Swift

 

Tiny Bugs In Mealybugs Have Smaller Bugs Inside Them (from Science Daily)

Like tiny Russian dolls, the mealybugs that infest your houseplants carry bacteria inside their cells that are themselves infected with another type of bacteria. A new study by researchers at the University of California, Davis, shows that instead of spreading from bug to bug, the second set of bacteria infected the first several times in the past and are now being passed along and evolving with them.

 

 

Complete story for other science geeks

 

[Dru]

bacteria are not bugs...bugs are 6-legged insects (in general, I would concede a millipede is a "bug") whereas bacteria are microbes....

 

computer bugs are neither. did you debug your plants?

[catbirdseat]

I think I have them at bay for the moment, but they have a way of returning. I think they are tiny enough that they come through the screen, or else they just hide in some corner.

[Dru]

if you started breeding them you could open up a retail outlet called "Brian's Buggery"

[MrDoolittle]

Mitochrondrian are theorized to have once been a seperate orgamism that was envaginated, and developed a simbiotic relationship with its host. Thanks, Mito, for the ATP!!

[catbirdseat]

Likewise for chloroplasts and perhaps vacuoles.