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Comment Threads

• Scott Sanford commented on Crib Sheet: The Rhesus Chart
  Since ants are thought to be the brainiest insects, and argentine ants form clonal colonies that cover continents and probably contain trillions of ants, if you follow this theory to its logical conclusion, a PHANG, by eating a cup of live ants, Renfield-style, could let v-parasite could work its way through trillions of argentine ant clones, rid the world of a serious pest, and keep its host alive for quite a long time. You'd be very popular indeed if you could make this scheme work with Australian rabbits....
• Heteromeles commented on Crib Sheet: The Rhesus Chart
  Alas, I think it only works on clonal species, due to the similarity/contagion thing the v-parasite works on. Just how genetically similar are Australia's rabbits?...
• Bellinghman commented on Crib Sheet: The Rhesus Chart
  Perhaps the naked mole rat would be a better choice, it being a eusocial mammal. The burrowing is probably not relevant....
• Charlie Stross commented on Crib Sheet: The Rhesus Chart
  was there some reference/sub-text I should have gotten out of the conference call with Agent Black/Green and Angleton? It really puzzled me. Unwritten (as yet) back story. There's something similar in "The Nightmare Stacks" except I plan to write the novella giving the background before the book comes out....
• Heteromeles commented on Crib Sheet: The Rhesus Chart
  Actually, argentine ants appear to be clonal or close to clonal over very large areas. An ant that wanders out of one colony can fit into another nearby without being attacked (the normal fate of ants from other colony, due to colony-specific odors), and queens and drones from nests simply breed with each other, rather than flying off and outbreeding, leading to huge colonies with billions of workers and thousands to millions of queens covering many square miles, all coexisting amicably. This isn't the case for almost all other ant, bee, or termite species, which is why I don't think...