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The zombie-ant fungus is easily identifiable when its reproductive structure becomes apparent on its dead host, usually a carpenter ant. At the end of its life cycle, O. unilateralis typically generates a single, wiry yet pliant, darkly pigmented stroma which arises from the dorsal pronotum region of the ant once it is dead. [ 8 ]
But it can't jump to humans. According to data from Yale School of Medicine , because humans have evolved, and have a high enough body temperature, inhaling this kind of fungal spore has no effect ...
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The ant clamps its jaws around the plant in a "death grip" and following, mycelia grow from the ant's feet and stitch them to the surface of the plant. [9] The spores released from the ant carcass fall to the ground and infect other ants that come in contact with the spores so that this cycle continues. [ 10 ]
The premise of zombie fungus can quickly turn into a horror story when reimagined as a sci-fi creature infecting humans, such as in the HBO series “The Last of Us,” said to have been inspired ...
In this case, an infected person becomes a "hungry", a zombie thirsting for blood. 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 ...
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Ants infected with the fungus Ophiocordyceps unilateralis exhibit intricate behaviors: irregularly timed body convulsions cause the ant to drop to the forest floor, [20] from which it climbs a plant up to a certain height [21] before locking its jaws into the vein of one of its leaves answering certain criteria of direction, temperature, and ...