There is a fungus which infects ants similarly to how we imagine zombie virus’ infect us and grow to control us.
Once the spores land on an ant, the hyphae twist and intertwine through the ants’ body, connecting itself to the majority of the ant’s organs (not the brain), like strings on a puppet. Then, through the precise excretion of chemicals, the fungus take control of the ant. It conducts the ant up the nearest plant and makes the ant attach itself to a major vein of the plant. Then the fungus sprouts out the head of the ant, growing into a mushroom that sprinkles millions of spores down on to the ant colony below.
Quote
“They found that the fungus becomes, to an unsettling degree, a prosthetic organ of ants’ bodies. As much as forty percent of the biomass of an infected ant is fungus. Hyphae wind through their body cavities, from heads to legs, enmesh their muscle fibers, and coordinate their activity via an interconnected mycelial network.”
Connections
Reference
Book: Entangled Life Author: Merlin Sheldrake Location: 1628