By Laura Geggel, Senior Writer |
June 15, 2017 07:11am ET
A fungus worthy of its own horror
film is on the loose, taking over the bodies of goldenrod soldier beetles and
turning them into contagious zombies that can infect their beetle brethren, a
new study finds.
The fungus has a creepy but
foolproof modus operandi: About two weeks after it infects the goldenrod
soldier beetle (Chauliognathus
pensylvanicus), it orders the beetle to climb up a plant and clamp its
mandibles around a flower.
Then, the beetle dies, swinging
like a scarecrow from the flower and giving the fungus ample opportunity to
infect nearby beetles, said study lead investigator Donald Steinkraus, a
professor of entomology at the University of Arkansas.
Steinkraus first spotted these
bizarre, zombie-like beetles on a research farm in Fayetteville, Arkansas. He
remembers seeing hundreds of yellow-and-black soldier beetles on a patch of
blooming wild asters. The beetles were eating pollen and mating — "the
flowers were sort of like a dating site that also offered food,"
Steinkraus told Live Science in an email.
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