Zombie Ants on the Rampage!
by Marc Patterson
Here’s a little known fact – I love the Discovery Channel and all those nature show channels. I grew up in the outdoors, and have always maintained a rather active interest in nature. The woods have always been my friend, and one day I dream of living in a cabin nestled into some remote northern part of the US, far from the luxuries of modern life. I will die in the mountains and just disappear. At any rate, I digress. This sordid love affair with nature led me to The Huffington Post’s website yesterday where I discovered a fascinating article on a phenomenon occurring amongst populations of ants in the rain forest. While some of you may now be groaning, I’d beg for you to stay with me. It gets rather interesting. Apparently there is a “zombifying fungus” that infects ants, causing erratic behavior, ultimately leading to death, upon which even more bizarre stuff starts to happen. Let’s take a look at that “stuff”.
The Huffington Post article includes a comment from LiveScience:
Once it infects an ant, the fungus uses as-yet-unidentified chemicals to control the ant’s behavior, [study researcher David] Hughes told LiveScience. It directs the ant to leave its colony (a very un-ant-like thing to do) and bite down on the underside of a leaf — the ant’s soon-to-be resting place. Once it is killed by the fungus, the ant remains anchored in place, thanks to its death grip on the leaf.
Ultimately, the fungus produces a long stalk that protrudes from the ant’s head, shooting spores out in the hopes of infecting other ants. Two of the four newly discovered species also sprouted smaller stalks elsewhere, including from the victim’s feet and lower leg joints – the equivalent of knees.
This stalk affect, that ultimately infects and can even wipe out entire ant colonies, which individually number into the millions population wise, is understatedly deadly, but also a horrifyingly beautiful thing to behold. I watched the below video from BBC and was fascinated in this as a potentially fantastic idea for a new breed of zombie horror unlike anything made before. What if there was an infectious fungus that could cause this to happen to the human population? I’m seeing these grand cinematic visions in my head of humans petrified in place with stalks growing from their cadavers. I’m no filmmaker, but it certainly inspired me. Now I’d like to see someone out there grab hold of this inspiration and make something mind-blowingly awesome.
