Zombie Ants are here run for the Hills!
Actually don’t worry if our tiny insect friends were the tip of the spear of the zombie invasion we would have been in trouble a long time ago. Scientist recently found evidence that ants being taken over which are commonly known as zombie ants began as far back as 48 million years ago. Harvard scientist David Hughes found this evidence by exploring plant fossils found in Germany’s Rhine Rift Valley that had the tell tale signs of the zombie ant bite! So what exactly is a zombie ant?
It is actually a fungus that infects the ant and takes over it’s brains. Oddly though instead of making the ant want to eat other ant brains this fungus causes the ant to chomp down on the veins of leafs in order fo that fungus to get the necessary nutrients it needs to complete it’s take over. This causes the ant to die but the fungus then grows a stalk with a pod at the end that releases spores that will move on to continue the process again. This stalk grwos right out of the ant’s head as pictured here:

Pretty freaky stuff right?
Well it is not only fungi that find the ant body enticing. As descibed at National Geographicit is also common for phorid flies to inject their eggs into a fire ant. You know those pesky red ants that are everywhere in the southern United States. The eggs grow in the ant and make their way to the head of the ant. The larva can live there for weeks feeding off the brain and it has even been shown in some cases to cause the ants to migrate away from their colony as far as 50 yards so as to avoid begin attacked by other ants. To finish the process the baby fly will decapitate it’s host ant when it hatches and flies away. Check out a picture of the fly actually hatching out of the ant:

And that boys and girls is your Truth is Stranger then fiction moment of the day. Pretty freaky stuff if you ask me.


