Zombie fungi were already controlling insects 100 million years ago, according to a recent study of fossils trapped in ...

Chinese Academy of Sciences researchers report that fossilized entomopathogenic fungi from mid-Cretaceous amber reveal some of the oldest direct evidence of parasitic relationships between fungi and ...

Two bits of amber discovered in a lab basement hold ancient evidence of a fungi famous for controlling the minds of its victims.

The research will be published in the journal PLoS ONE. "The hyperparasitic fungus effectively castrates the zombie-ant fungus so it cannot spread its spores," said Hughes, who is an assistant ...

Rather, the fungus leads ants to their deaths along the outskirts of the colony, creating a "sniper's alley" where the corpses can discreetly spread deadly fungal spores, new research shows.

Scientists have discovered two new species of ancient parasitic fungi preserved in amber dating back 99 million years. The fungi were growing out of the bodies of host insects that became trapped in ...

At first the ant seems normal to the human eye, but eventually it […] It’s time to pay another visit to Cordyceps, the fungus that turns its hosts into spore-sprouting zombies.

"Producing more spores will help the fungus counteract the spore-removal by helping nestmates. Yet, we were surprised to see that the ants showed less grooming against the spores," Sylvia Cremer adds.

The spore-ridden ant could pass the spores themselves onto others, triggering immune responses in the rest of the group, or it could pass on immune chemicals, like antibodies.

When fungal spores get inside an ant, the spores chow down on the animal’s winter fat supply, slowly starving the insect from within. And in a recent field trial on crazy ant colonies, ...

Spore muscles hold tiny blue weights away from the wheel’s axis when they expand in a moist chamber. ... elephants show empathy and ants imitate water in ScienceTake, ...