Fungus that controls zombie-ants has own fungal stalker
See on Scoop.it - 100 Acre Wood
An unsuspecting worker ant in Brazil’s rainforest leaves its nest one morning. But instead of following the well-worn treetop paths of its nest mates, this ant stumbles along clumsily, walking in aimless circles, convulsing from time to time.
At high noon, as if programmed, the ant plunges its mandibles into the juicy main vein of a leaf and soon dies. Within days the stem of a fungus sprouts from the dead ant’s head. After growing a stalk, the fungus casts spores to the ground below, where they can be picked up by other passing ants.
This strange cycle of undead life and death has been well documented and has earned the culprit the moniker: “zombie-ant” fungus—even in the scientific literature.
See on nature.com
