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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.
[14] [15] The result is a zombie apocalypse and the collapse of human civilization. Scientific American notes that some species in the genus "are indeed body snatchers–they have been making real zombies for millions of years", though of ants or tarantulas, not of humans. [14]
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]
The species typically doesn't bite humans unless provoked, but they do like to make their nests in damp wood—which explains the draw of an often-empty old cabin in the mountains. Truthfully, it ...
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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 ...
Ophiocordyceps camponoti-balzani is a species of fungus that parasitizes insect hosts of the order Hymenoptera, primarily ants. [1] It was first isolated from Viçosa, Minas Gerais (Atlantic Forest), on Camponotus balzani. This species was formerly thought to be Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, which has subsequently been divided into four species.