"Zombie" Ants Bite at High Noon, Then Die 

By Ker Than 

On National Geographic 

This was a very creepy article. This article is about how a fungus parasite can take control over an ants brain. This fungus only lives in the forests of Thailand. For these "zombified" ants to survive they need to be in conditions of 95 percent humidity and temperatures between 20 and 30 degrees celsius. I will explain the "zombification" process of these ants. 

The spore of the fungus goes on to the head of an ant. Then it slowly grows. In this stage it is technically half fungi half ant. After nine days the ant becomes fully "zombified" and the fungus takes over the nervous system. For the next few days the ant will seem to have very random and insignificant behavior. After a few days the fungus tells the ant to clamp down on a leaf. The fungus cells in the ant cause fibers to detach. This causes the ants jaws to be virtually unlockable. After this stage the fungus then kills the ant using poison. According to the research, they tend to commonly kill the ant at high noon. Why this time, is still unclear. The spores of the fungus spread down off the head and on the leaf, for other ants to "find"....

I chose this article because it was very similar to my other current event about a cyclops shark. I know this article is valid because it is on national geographic which is a widely used website to find out about current events. Also this article is on livescience.com. I found this article interesting because I thought it was creepy how fungi could take control of an animals brain. While I was reading this article I was wondering if this fungi could take control of other animal brains. I was also wondering if it could take control of us! Something that I wish to hear more information about is why they tend to kill at high noon. I think this is a well written because it goes into depth about how and why this mysterious fungus takes control of Thai ants.