Zombie Ants

Amelia

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Oct 3, 2007
Messages
198
Hahaha! I just told my mother about this.

Mom- "What does this have to do with a zombie apocalypse and me?"
Me- "Well, you see, it is starting with ants, but will eventually move on to humans."
Mom- "Is this in the rainforest?"
Me- "Yes."
Mom- "Well, that is why we are cutting it down. To destroy the zombie fungus."
 

pavel

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Oct 18, 2008
Messages
390
Fascinating!

There are other parasites with similar MOs. Makes ya wonder how that adaptation came into being.
 

JC50

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Feb 12, 2009
Messages
325
Fascinating!

There are other parasites with similar MOs. Makes ya wonder how that adaptation came into being.

That was also my question.That is a strange pairing especially if other forms of fungis target specific ants.
 

Moltar

ArachnoGod
Old Timer
Joined
Apr 11, 2007
Messages
5,438
I saw a piece recently on a parsasitic organism (i believe this one was a bacteria or other tiny micro-organism) that would cause a caterpillar to climb to the top of a tree and wave itself around to attract birds to come eat it because the next stage of the parasite's life cycle takes place in the bird's GI tract. There was another that would cause a caterpillar to use it's cocooning silk to instead attach itself to the top of a leaf in order to make itself a better growing medium for the fruiting parasitic fungus.

It's incredible how advanced these things can be. Makes you wonder what other kinds of weird stuff is out there still to be discovered...
 
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