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Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, commonly known as zombie-ant fungus, [2] is an insect-pathogenic fungus, discovered by the British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace in 1859. Zombie ants, infected by the Ophiocordyceps unilateralis fungus, are predominantly found in tropical rainforests .
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 ]
O. camponoti-balzani infects ants, and eventually kills the hosts after they move to an ideal location for the fungus to spread its spores. This has earned the species names such as “zombie fungus”, given the fungus has been observed to cause its hosts to bite hard into the substrate it stands on, so that the fungus can then stably grow. [2]
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The newly discovered species, named Gibellula attenboroughii, acts in a similar way as the zombie ant fungus, seemingly manipulating its prey to move to a more suitable spot for the fungus to ...
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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 ...
Some host specialist entomopathogenic fungi have even evolved mechanisms of behavioral manipulation (e.g. Ophiocordyceps unilateralis - Zombie ant fungus) of their hosts. [7] These fungi hijack the insect nervous systems using various secondary metabolites and manipulate insect behavior to move the infected insect to a place which is ...