This fungus turns ants into ‘zombies’
Posted by staff / August 19, 2014
After the “zombie ant fungus” kills a victim, it grows a stalk called the stroma, which protrudes from the ant cadaver.
A large round structure, the ascoma, forms on the stroma. Infectious spores then develop in the ascoma and are released onto the forest floor below, where they can infect foraging ants from the colony.
“What the zombie fungi essentially do is create a sniper’s alley through which their future hosts must pass,” says David Hughes, assistant professor of entomology and biology at Penn State.
Full story at Futurity.
Photo credit: David Hughes/Penn State
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