Sci-fi buffet, episode I: Zombies are REAL

It's about time for me to actually start this series, though I do have a number of scientifically relevant things to discuss with you all, dear followers.  But for tonight, let us start with one that will rock your socks off: zombies are real.

For any fans of the Resident Evil series, this should rock your world.  Those of you that fantasize of the zombie apocalypse - or zombpocalypse, as it is know to the hardcore, at least in a phonetic sense - your moment of vindication has arrived.  And if your favorite book is "World War Z" - like Nathan Fillion, who is absolutely the best anything ever *sigh* - here is your proof.

courtesy of National Geographic

ZOMBIE ANTS!!!!!!!

Okay, perhaps not as frightening as the husk of a former human being lurching toward you with that hungry, vacant look in their now-soulless eyes, but we've all got to start somewhere, and it seems like zombie-ism has its foot in the door.

Now this ant is not a reindeer/elk/ant hybrid.  No, the stalks that you see in the picture above growing out of the ants head are in fact one of four species of fungus recently discovered in Brazil which can exert mind control over the host ant.  What this means is that the fungus, once exposed to its host, can take over the ant's brain and wait until the ant relocalizes to an ideal spot for fungal cultivation.  At this point, it then kills the host so that the fungus is able to proliferate and make a go at world domination.

David Hughes, an entomologist at Penn State was quoted in the National Geographic article from whence the picture was borrowed as:

 This potentially means thousands of zombie fungi in tropical forests across the globe await discovery.

Of the four species yet discovered, each appears to be specifically adapted to a corresponding species of ant, over which it can exert optimal mind control.  If there are truly thousands of zombie fungi out there, what else may fall prey to these maniacal mushrooms?  (N.B.: Fungus is more than just mushrooms, so I'm a bad scientist for that alliteration)   Time is the only one who can tell, but let's all just hope that we don't end up pod people to an indigenous strain of fungus, bent on taking over the world.

Also particularly interesting, beyond simply specializing in what hosts to take over, the fungi apparently have evolved different mechanisms of transmission to further the spread of their particular fungi.  For example, some cause the host organism to develop long spines emanating from the thorax, which - upon contact with another ant of the same species - allows the fungi to move to a shiny new host.  Other fungi take a more grim approach, generating explosive spores in the body of fallen host ants which serve as a proximity mine; when any other ant gets too close, GO BOOM! and the spores take their rightful place as the new owners of the ant brain.

courtesy of National Geographic

The fungi continue to replicate and renew inside the ant carcasses until they eventually emerge.  See above for "before" and below for...

courtesy of National Geographic

AFTER!  Diabolical, no?  But highly effective as all the necessary resources for growth can be scavenged from the deceased host.  Life is a game of survival of the fittest, and this fungus is fit to be tied... but I don't want to have to touch it to tie it, so you do it.

The good news is that given how specialized the species of fungus discovered so far have been, we're relatively safe from swarms of zombie ants (so long as we don't live in Brazil's rain forests).  But evolution has a funny way, so imagine what things may come...

Actually, don't.  It's creepy!