“Zombie” ants fall victim to mind-control fungus. I can almost guarantee government is looking i

Once the "stalk of the newfound fungus species Ophiocordyceps camponoti-balzani infects an ant, the ant gives up control over its own body. After the fungus is in control, it forces the ant to scamper toward "a location ideal for the fungi to grow and spread their spores." Then, it's lights out for the ant. Who knew a fungus could be so diabolical?
news.yahoo.com... /20110310/od_yblog_upshot/zombie-ants-fall-victim-to-mind-control-fungus

Beyond this important milestone, the paper also draws attention to undiscovered, complex, biological interactions in threatened habitats. The four new species all come from the Atlantic Rainforest of Brazil which is the most heavily degraded biodiversity hotspot on the planet. Ninety-two percent of its original coverage is gone. The effect of biodiversity loss on community structure is well known. What researchers don’t know is how parasites, such as these zombie-inducing fungi, cope with fragmentation. The authors show that each of the four species is highly specialized on one ant species and has a suite of adaptations and spore types to ensure infection. The life-cycle of these fungi that infect, manipulate and kill ants before growing spore producing stalks from their heads is remarkably complicated. The present work establishes the identification tools to move forward and ask how forest fragmentation affects such disease dynamics.
Conclusions: We are only just beginning to understand the taxonomy and ecology of the Ophiocordyceps unilateralis species complex associated with carpenter ants; macroscopically characterised by a single stalk arising from the dorsal neck region of the ant host on which the anamorph occupies the terminal region and the teleomorph occurs as lateral cushions or plates.


I have no idea how this works,maybe it affects the synapses and neurotransmiters or maybe it produces some kind of neurotransmitter, i don't know, but once they crack this with little bit of research some non-ant application could be found. I believe this is the first time something of this nature is being discovered and i find it interesting when considering the possibilities.

reply to post by shikori


hate to be a downer but this has been posted like 9 times in the past 2 weeks.

I didnt even have to read the post cuz i saw this on discovery channel XD
it is interesting and could easily be manipulated into a zombie virus.

Sounds a bit like heroin, gets people addicted and the people do what ever they can to keep it going. Even if that means killing millions of people in bogus wars.

they find this and they are working with bacteria strands that are immortal .... yeah FREEEEAKY oh well when the zombies infest world cause of scientist goofing around i will be ready .... probably never happen but
never hurts to be prepared

Reminds me of Television's affect on humans.