What are the most extraordinary parasitic relationships in nature?
Some parasites hijack their host's brain, turning them into mindless zombies that do the parasite's bidding.
The answer
Ophiocordyceps fungi infect carpenter ants, manipulating their behavior to climb vegetation and clamp onto leaves at precise heights optimal for spore dispersal - earning the name 'zombie ant fungus.' Toxoplasma gondii, a protozoan that reproduces only in cats, makes infected rodents lose their fear of cat urine and even become attracted to it, completing the parasite's life cycle. The jewel wasp injects venom into a cockroach's brain at two precise locations, creating a docile 'zombie' it leads by the antenna to its burrow as a living food source for its larvae. Sacculina barnacles castrate crabs and rewire their behavior to nurture barnacle eggs as if they were the crab's own offspring.
Source: BBC Earth
- parasites
- zombie parasites
- ecology
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