zombie ants Academic excitement arises when Khao Sok National Park is one of the mycological research sites of the Forest and Plant Conservation Research Bureau.
Even after a two-month drought, the researchers were able to find pathogenic molds on ants and other insects such as aphids, snails, flies and leafhoppers. which if the forest is wet It was raining as usual. More specimens of fungi are expected to be found in forests in Khao Sok National Park.
A disease-causing fungus on ants that causes fungal infection ants to become unable to control themselves, also known as zombie ants, referred to by their stiff, staggering gait from being manipulated by the fungus to make the ants walk up tall trees. Find a suitable habitat for mold propagation.
when you get the right place Infected ants bite onto leaves. Mostly under the leaves or along the stalks or stems for adhesion. and when the environment is moist enough to grow Fungi produce stalks at the joints between the ant's head and thorax.
Elongated brown to black stalks. and a structure used for sexual reproduction of fungi, brownish round shape in the middle of the stalk The tip of the stalk is the asexual reproductive part. The propagation of mold spores spreads to other ants.
The fungus that causes zombie ants, Ophiocordyceps unilateralis sensu lato, belongs to the same genus as the pathogenic fungi on caterpillars or cordyceps. (Ophiocordyceps sinensis) that we have known and used for a long time.
Zombie ants are common in national parks and wildlife sanctuaries in Thailand.