Ireland: Fungus Turns Cave Spiders Into Zombies
Scientists named the fungus Gibellula attenboroughii in honor of Sir David Attenborough.
I miss Leslie when she’s out and about but I don’t mind it too much because I get to write about science stuff!
Leslie has way more knowledge than me, though.
Anyway, scientists discovered a fungus inside Irish caves that turns cave spiders into zombies.
They named the fungus after Sir David Attenborough. From CNN:
The newly discovered species, named Gibellula attenboroughii, acts in a similar way as the zombie ant fungus, seemingly manipulating its prey to move to a more suitable spot for the fungus to spread, according to a study published January 24 in the journal Fungal Systematics and Evolution.
But the way in which the fungus affects the arachnid’s brain is still a mystery, and a multitude of questions remain about the fungus’ evolutionary pathway and ecological impacts.
“We know very well the ants, the wasps, and very few other examples. And now this is in a different family, so it’s a new origin of behavior manipulation,” said study coauthor Dr. João Araújo, a mycologist at the Natural History Museum of Denmark and an assistant professor at the University of Copenhagen. “It’s something really interesting that’s not super common in the parasitic world.”
The finding opens up new research opportunities to better understand animal-controlling fungus and illuminates the diversity of fungi yet to be uncovered, researchers said.
A new fungus, Gibellula attenboroughii, has been discovered in cave spiders across Ireland, including Whitefathers' Caves. First found in County Down in 2021, it alters spider behavior, forcing them into exposed locations to spread its spores by manipulating pic.twitter.com/zwZBvKZdhB
— IBTimes UK (@IBTimesUK) February 5, 2025
Dr. Harry Evans from the Centre for Agriculture and Biosciences International (CABI) and a team of scientists found that the fungus is native to only “indigenous cave-dwelling spider species.”
They concluded Gibellula attenboroughii prefers “man-made habitats like culverts, tunnels and cellars.”
[Featured image via Centre for Agriculture and Biosciences International (CABI) via BBC]
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Comments
Ugh.
I think I’ll put off eating for a while.
I think a fungus already has evolved to take control of the human brain. It’s called Marxism.
I think leftism is caused by a prion, like kuru and bovine spongiform encephalopathy.
Can you find some that works on fire ants?
Shoulda named it after George Romero.
Romero doesn’t get the credit he deserves from mainstream audiences as a filmmaker or for him deciding to use the genre he pioneered as vehicle for social commentary. Zombie movies ain’t about the zombies but are instead about how humanity both individually and collectively decide to react to them.
Zombies are a metaphor for mortality. You can put it off, run from it for a while, but it never stops.
Sometimes a Zombie is just a Zombie…. just sayin’
Speaking of the “parasitic world” I wonder if we should be on the lookout for an “animal-cobntrolling fungus” on Democrats? Perhaps Biden hid in his basement for too long?
Quite seriously – it’s not unthinkable that there is an unstudied psychological affect from toxoplasmosis on Democratic Cat Ladies.
It sure has one on rats and everyone knows that rats are the go-to stand-in for humans in lab testing for..well…everything.
“Although it is known that Toxoplasma infection causes behavioral change in rodents, it is not known if such behavioral change is an absolute all-or-none phenomenon or the change is relative and is dependent on the intensity of stimulus…”
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2430144/
I mean, it WOULD explain a lot.
I read several articles a while ago that posited that toxoplasmosis may be a cause of schizophrenia. What led me to that research was that. I’ve, unfortunately, dealt with several literally “crazy cat ladies”, one of which committed a horrific murder. She had at least 100 cats living with her. Just the thought of it brings back the extreme odor. My opinion of cats took a dramatic turn after that,
“Check your cards for 2025, please!
Zombie… spiders…”
Let me guess, USAID funded it.
Let’s hope The Last of Us remains fiction.
This may explain liberals.