{"id":3904,"date":"2010-08-20T17:09:56","date_gmt":"2010-08-20T21:09:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/?p=3904"},"modified":"2010-08-20T17:09:56","modified_gmt":"2010-08-20T21:09:56","slug":"fungus-has-been-invading-carpenter-ants-for-48-million-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/2010\/08\/20\/fungus-has-been-invading-carpenter-ants-for-48-million-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Fungus has been invading carpenter ants for 48 million years"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><a href=\"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog-preprod\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/90\/2010\/08\/CAntFungus.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-3905 img-fluid\" style=\"margin-top: 0px;margin-bottom: 6px\" title=\"Ophiocordyceps unilateralis \" src=\"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog-preprod\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/90\/2010\/08\/CAntFungus.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"463\" height=\"376\" srcset=\"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/90\/2010\/08\/CAntFungus.jpg 425w, https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/90\/2010\/08\/CAntFungus-300x244.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 463px) 100vw, 463px\" \/><\/a>Scientists have found that the parasitic fungus <em>Ophiocordyceps unilateralis<\/em><em> <\/em>has possibly been invading carpenter ants <em>(<\/em><em>Camponotus<\/em>) for 48 million years. The parasite not only infects the ant, but it manipulates the ant\u2019s behavior as well, influencing it to bite the underside of leaves along the veins. Once the ant finds an optimal location, the fungus grows rapidly, killing the ant and preparing it to release a new spore.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">During this process, the ant leaves distinct marks, also known as \u201cdeath bites,\u201d on the leaves as they bite the veins in search of a prime spot for fungal growth. It is this unique pattern that led David Hughes of Harvard University to a 48 million year old leaf with similar markings. According to a <em>Nature News<\/em> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/news\/2010\/100817\/full\/news.2010.415.html\">article<\/a>, Hughes contacted Conrad Labandeira, a palaeoecologist at the Smithsonian\u2019s National Museum of Natural History, who, as it turned out, had noticed a leaf with strange cuts along the veins. As Hughes said in the article, \u201cIt is not normal ant behavior to bite into the leaf vein because it has no real nutritional value to the ant and can in fact be toxic in some plant species.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">The marks found as part of the fossil, as Hughes explained in a <em>Biology Letters<\/em> <a href=\"http:\/\/rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org\/content\/early\/2010\/08\/16\/rsbl.2010.0521\">study<\/a> published online this week, indicated that the carpenter ant was likely infected with the parasitic fungus when it bit the leaf. As <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.discovermagazine.com\/80beats\/2010\/08\/18\/parasite-infested-zombie-ants-walked-the-earth-48-million-years-ago\/\">reported<\/a> in <em>Discover Magazine<\/em>\u2019s blog <em>80beats<\/em>, \u201cIf Hughes\u2019 dating is correct, then the fungi have had plenty of time to fine-tune their zombifying practice into the ruthlessly efficient mind control we see today.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Photo Credit: David Hughes, from <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.discovermagazine.com\/80beats\/2010\/08\/18\/parasite-infested-zombie-ants-walked-the-earth-48-million-years-ago\/\">Discover<\/a>\u2018s 80beats<br>\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scientists have found that the parasitic fungus Ophiocordyceps unilateralis has possibly been invading carpenter ants (Camponotus) for 48 million years. The parasite not only infects the ant, but it manipulates the ant\u2019s behavior, influencing it to bite the underside of the leaf at the veins. Once the ant hits an optimal location, the fungus grows rapidly, killing the ant and preparing it to release a new spore.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[311,272,917,224,918,919,920],"class_list":["post-3904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-research","tag-ants","tag-fungus","tag-parasite-host","tag-parasites","tag-parasitic-fungus","tag-spores","tag-zombie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3904\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}