The fungus can destroy entire colonies and leave behind gruseome ant graveyards, where twisted, dark corpses rest with their mandibles locked around leaf veins, a final act that secures the creature’s host in position before it releases spores to infect others.”
On the bright side, they go very nice in an omelette.
This is the stuff of nightmares. My brain is already formulating scenarios where the infestation in the ants jumps species. The zombie apocolypse IS just around the corner. EEK!
There is the premise for a really awesome horror novel in there somewhere…
Seen this on Discover channel. They did a time-lapse of an ant infected with the fungus…creepy stuff. Like the article said, the ant is forced to climb to some vantage point and then dies, then like a scene from Aliens a proboscis protrudes through the back of its skull.
ah here it is:
Justin-
Creepiest thing ever, on so many levels. And, yes, very Alien…
I think it more alarming because it’s not seen as an animal etc. It’s ok for wasps to do that sort of thing because they’re bad boys but fungus? I feel similarly ill at ease with carnivorous plants.