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We Need To Talk About Zombie Ants

Because it's important that you know that this is a thing that exists in the world: fungus that infects ants, takes over their bodies to do its bidding, and then kills them. Nature does this; evolution somehow figured this out. (Or if you rather your...

Because it's important that you know that this is a thing that exists in the world: fungus that infects ants, takes over their bodies to do its bidding, and then kills them. Nature does this; evolution somehow figured this out. (Or if you rather your god be behind this. . . )

Zombie ants aren't anything new and are by now pretty well ingrained in cruel-nature popular lore. But I bring this up because there's a new paper out today in a journal called PLoS ONE about four new species of the fungus discovered in Brazil's Atlantic rainforest, e.g. the most environmentally stomped on place on the planet. And why that's important is because the fungi are marvels of biodiversity: each one of the four is finely specialized for a different variety of ant.

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That's a big deal not only because it's just weird, but because it gives researchers something to watch, a sort of coal mine canary for biodiversity. The fungus evolved in a marvelously complicated and untouched ecosystem for millenia (or some very long time), and only relatively recently has been disturbed. How something this specialized adapts to that wrecked ecosystem is an important focus of study.

I feel that now is also a good time to remind you about Toxoplasmosis, a parasite that infects humans (two-thirds of all of us worldwide, more than Herpes) and most warm-blooded mammals. A fun thing it does to mice and rats is make them bolder and more likely to hang around cats. (It makes them attracted to cat pee.) And get eaten and, thus, reproduce inside the cat. Then the parasite gets to spread like any good species is wont to do. In people, it's been suggested that it makes men and women more promiscuous, among other things, and generally acts the same as an anti-depressant drug. Though that's up debate.

Finally, back to the zombie ants for a quick end-note, a little something to take to bed with you tonight. Once the fungus has taken over the ant and used the ant to get where it needs to go to sprout, it eventually produces its stalk from the ant's head. Just in case you have any doubts that nature is one big horror movie.

RIP:

The soundtrack on this BBC clip makes makes the process seem not quite so awful:

Reach this writer at michaelb@motherboard.tv.

Images: Harry C. Evans, Simon L. Elliot, David P. Hughes (PLuS ONE)