Mushroom hypnotizes ants

This ant brain slug. More precisely, this hypno-mushroom-master. He settles on the ant and turns it into a zombie. Mushroom dominates the mind of the insect will.





He zastavlet Goosebumps die in a special place, not anywhere.
After the zombie ant covers an obsession to find a leaf to 25 inches off the ground on the north side of the tree, so that the humidity would be 92-94%, not colder than 20 or 30 Celsius hotter. Hung equipment ant finds precisely defined list, grasps veinlets (!) Jaws and dies. Waiting for the death of his taxi driver, the fungus begins to act. Its mycelium slowly flooding the interior spaces of the insect. In different parts of what until recently was running, the fungus grows itself different organs. Fragile parts of the exoskeleton enhances the mushroom, soft remodel. After a week of neck ant process appears with a red ball on the end. We thought it was an eye-transmitting or receiving ustroysto, but it turned out the process for breeding. Disputes are hundreds of thousands or even millions (currently carried out detailed calculations) leave the red ball and spread over an area of ​​1 sq.m. under the leaf. All ants clan Camponotus leonardi, who were at that time under the leaf death or will there soon doomed to spend his remaining days in search of a green leaf on the north side of the tree at a height of 25 cm. Curtain.

Source: www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=fungus-makes-zombie-ants (English)

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