Parasite May Prevent Zombie Ant Fungus
Here's the story. A weird fungus enters your brain, turns you and everyone around you into zombies who then march to a mass grave where the fungus spores erupt out of your heads. If you're an ant, this isn't the plot to a B-Horror movie, it's reality. But don't despair, there's hope, hapless insect!
Another weird fungus - a hyperparasitic one - can keep an entire colony safe from this Living Dead scenario by rendering the Zombie Ant fungus ineffective. And it does it in B-movie style; it castrates the fatal fungus, preventing further reproduction and spread of its brain-eating spores.
Researchers at Penn State who study these things say that healthy populations of ants can thrive in close proximity to an Ant Zombieland without be affected. The ants' natural instinct to groom each other seems to keep the transmission of these two battling fungi in a survivable balance for most colonies. Good news for ants.
Bad news for Zombie Ant Fungus. And picnics.