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Convulsions and climbing behavior: After the fungus enters the ant, it propagates, and fungal cells are found beside the host's brain. Once the population is of sufficient size, the fungus secretes compounds and takes over the central nervous system (CNS), which enables it to manipulate the ant to reach the forest floor and climb up the vegetation.
The fungus has possible implications in medicine; it may have anti-asthmatic or anti-cancer properties. [ 3 ] [ 4 ] After the fungus takes over the insect, the insect would go to the highest place and the fungus would sprout out of the body.
Ophiocordyceps is a genus of fungi within the family Ophiocordycipitaceae. [2] The widespread genus, first described scientifically by British mycologist Tom Petch in 1931, [3] contains about 140 species that grow on insects. [4]
Entomopathogenic fungi perform a vital ecological role in natural environments by controlling insect populations. 19 out of 30 insect orders have fungal pathogens [1] [4]. Because of this ability, they are used in agriculture as biocontrol agents/bioinsecticides and are considered to a sustainable alternative to chemical pesticides [ 5 ] .
Ophiocordyceps sinensis (synonym Cordyceps sinensis), known colloquially as caterpillar fungus, is an entomopathogenic fungus (a fungus that grows on insects) in the family Ophiocordycipitaceae. It is mainly found in the meadows above 3,500 metres (11,500 ft) on the Tibetan Plateau in Tibet and the Himalayan regions of Bhutan , India , and Nepal .
This white fungus takes over the male, their gonads are torn from their body and chalky spores are spread around to nearby other cicadas, he said. The insects are sterilized, not killed.
The details of the fungus’ attack on the bugs — destroying the insects’ genitals, replacing their abdomens with a cavity full of fungal spores, manipulating the bugs into hypersexual ...
In the fiction, Dr. Caldwell explains that the human-infecting fungus is a mutated form of Ophiocordyceps unilateralis (a group of species now split off from Cordyceps) which alters the behaviour of infected insects. The children of infected mothers, however, become "hybrids" with antibodies protecting them against the fungus. [16]