So, I hate bugs. (All bugs, including spiders, which may or may not be considered a bug.) Unfortunately, I’ve been battling an ant invasion for the last few months, so I’ve got bugs on my mind. The crazy little buggers keep coming back, which is driving me up the wall. I’ve also found grasshoppers and spiders wandering around, too. (Have I mentioned I have a phobia of bugs—especially spiders? Yeah, even lady bugs terrify me.)
Tag: ants
"Zombie" Ants Found With New Mind-Control Fungi
Check this National Geographic article out and speculate with fear:
The fungus species can infect an ant, take over its brain, and then kill the insect once it moves to a location ideal for the fungi to grow and spread their spores.
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All four known fungi species live in Brazil’s Atlantic rain forest, which is rapidly changing due to climate change and deforestation, said study leader David Hughes, an entomologist at Penn State University.
Hughes and colleagues made the discovery after noticing a wide diversity of fungal growths emerging from ant victims, according to the March 2 study in the journal PLoS ONE.
“It is tempting to speculate that each species of fungus has its own ant species that it is best adapted to attack,” Hughes said.
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