Zombie virus insects

One related species, O. The fungus-caterpillar husk combination is prized in traditional Tibetan and Chinese medicine as an immune booster, cancer treatment, and aphrodisiac. In a bizarre twist, Ophiocordyceps species that inhabitat Japanese cicadas may have even replaced symbiotic bacteria to help their hosts process nutrients from sap.

Much like the microbiome in our own guts, insects contain a whole array of fungal species, says Barrett Klein, an entomologist at the University of Wisconsin in La Crosse.

But because not all fungi can be grown in the lab, only a couple have been closely studied, much less flagged for causing behavioral manipulations. Scientists do know of a few though. Watch the flies turn into zombies here. The bare-bottomed cicada then wiggles its way towards death—again in the interest of spore dispersal. Read about more mind-controlling parasites.

All rights reserved. Deep in the Amazon rainforest, parasitic fungi called take over ants' bodies in order to reproduce. They walk among us: insects hijacked by parasitic fungi that control their every move. Share Tweet Email. Read This Next Did hallucinogenic booze fuel politics in ancient Peru? While the "zombifying" effect has been seen in insects before, the behavior is more commonly known to be seen when a parasitic fungus takes over , not a virus. Forest Service, said in a statement, according to ScienceDaily.

Clarification: As one reader has pointed out, the behavior of caterpillars to climb trees is natural, but typically only occurs when the insect is ready. It seems the virus suppresses the gene that causes the caterpillar to think that they should keep preparing to molt feed , causing them to climb to a place where they eventually die. This said, the virus is still causing a change in the behavior of its host in order to help it spread.

Main Menu U. The study highlights recent findings including how infection leads to hypersexual behavior. Even though infected cicadas lose their ability to mate when their backsides become fungal plugs, they will still attempt to mate to sexually transmit the fungus to healthy cicadas.

The parasitic fungus even manipulates male cicadas into flicking their wings to imitate the females' mating invitation so they can also infect unsuspecting male cicadas to rapidly transmit the disease. While researchers believe sexual transmission of the fungus is the easiest way for Massospora to spread, cicadas can also come into contact with the pathogen in other ways.

While a zombie army of cicadas sounds terrifying, Kasson reassures that infected cicadas are not a danger to humans. Frederic Libersat of Ben-Gurion University in Israel and colleagues discovered that the venom targets a specific area of the brain responsible for initiating movement.

Stripped of its ability to move of its own free will, the cockroach can be grabbed by the antenna and guided to a burrow, where the wasp will lay her egg on the victim and entomb them together. The wasp larva slowly consumes the cockroach for several days before pupating in its abdomen, emerging as an adult about a month later.

As an adult, the lancet liver fluke—a type of flatworm—resides in the livers of grazing mammals such as cows. Its eggs are excreted in the host's feces, which are then eaten by snails. After the eggs hatch inside the snail, the snail creates protective cysts around the parasites and coughs them up in balls of mucus. These fluke-laden slime balls are then consumed by ants. When the flukes wiggle their way into an ant's brain, they cause the insect to climb to the tip of a blade of grass and sit motionless, where it's most likely to be eaten by a grazing mammal.

That way, the liver fluke can complete its life cycle. Read about fungi that zombify ants. The fluke Euhaplorchis californiensis begins its life in an ocean-dwelling horn snail, where it produces larvae that then seek their next host, a killifish.

Once it finds a fish, the parasite latches on to its gills and makes its way to the brain. But this isn't its final stop. The fluke needs to get inside the gut of a water bird in order to reproduce. So inside the killifish's brain, the fluke releases chemicals that cause the fish to shimmy, jerk, and jump.

Jenny Shaw, then at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and colleagues found that the parasite decreases serotonin and increases dopamine levels in the fish's brain. The switch in this brain chemistry stimulates the fish to swim and behave more aggressively. These moves attract the attention of birds, which may eat the fish—and the flukes.