Zombie Ants

Picture from The Guardian website

Fungi have been discovered in Brazilian jungles which infect ants, take over their bodies and ensure that they die in a place that is a perfect position for the fungus to grow and breed. This leaves "zombie" ant corpses, like the one above, with their mandibles attached to leaf veins which are the perfect place for spores to be released. Victims of this fungus (named Ophiocordyceps) have been found from up to 150 years ago but the mechanism involved has only just been discovered. Ants either find the spores on the floor of the forest or they fall on the ants from above. In seven days the fungus grows and releases chemicals which make the ant wander off and bite onto a leaf vein, usually in a place which is perfect for fungal growth. The ant dies moments after, leaving behind a vessel from which the fungus shoots is spores during the night.

Just another example of the marvellous ways in which fungi spread their spores (remember the glow in the dark fungi?).