Nature
A fungus hijacks an ant's brain, marches it to its death, then sprouts from its head
Spores of Ophiocordyceps unilateralis infect carpenter ants, and over about a week the fungus manipulates the ant's behaviour to climb to a specific height and clamp its jaws onto a leaf vein at a precise time of day — entomologists call it the 'death grip.' The fungus then kills the ant and sprouts a stalk through its head to release spores onto the ants below. Fossilised leaves show identical death-grip bite marks dating back 48 million years.