Thursday, September 10, 2009

September Blog #2: "Zombie Ants Controlled by Fungus," by LiveScience, published 2009

A fascinating article I read fairly recently.

Apparently, fungi in South America land on an ant, and then direct them to the spot ideal for the ant to die and fungus to live and reproduce. The ant then clamps it's mandibles down on the spot.

This is where it gets really interesting. Next, the fungus explodes out of the back of the ants head. Yikes!

Kind of creepy, no? I think so. The implications are extraordinary, yet scientists have no idea how the fungus controls the ant so precisely. Scientists are still observing the interaction between ants and fungus (don't imagine it would be too hard, what with fungi three times the size of the ant wobbling on it's head), but have yet to make a break through.

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