In the remote Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, a rare fungus grows inside dead caterpillars. In traditional Chinese medicine, this ...

Creators of the franchise didn't look far for inspiration — the series is based off a real-life species of fungus that performs a kind of "mind control" on its insect hosts. Ophiocordyceps ...

but genetic studies have since placed it in another insect-parasitizing fungus group, Ophiocordyceps. There are well over 100 known Ophiocordyceps species that infect a wide variety of insects ...

The parasitic fungus ophiocordyceps sinensis is a popular traditional medicine and essential source of income for some of China’s poorest citizens. But now climate change and capitalism spell an ...

In nature, there is a species of Cordyceps fungi that infects ants, sometimes called the zombie-ant fungus. This species, Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, infects ants and takes over their bodies ...

In Ophiocordyceps-infected ants, one of the first signs that the fungus is taking control is a sudden burst of movement. At the same time, the ants are beset by a series of sudden spasms so ...

When you hear the word 'cordyceps' - one might shudder at the mental visual of a fungus-brained humanoid. After all, it was a real condition (Ophiocordyceps unilateralis) occurring in ants that ...

Don’t worry – these “brain-eating organisms” tend to target insects. The fungus Ophiocordyceps unilateralis infects and kills ants. Over time, they can diminish the local ant population. In the real ...

Since then, her fascination with this fungus has only grown, and the increasing accessibility of genomics, transcriptomics, and metabolomics technologies has allowed her to dive into the strategies ...

The Gibellula attenboroughii is, to a degree, the cousin of Ophiocordyceps unilateralis fungi. They both force the infected to climb as high as they can before the fungus grows out of their bodies ...

This evolutionary strategy has been made famous by the zombie ant fungus Ophiocordyceps, which inspired the video game and HBO show “The Last of Us.” This spider version is only distantly ...