Scary fungi turn flies into "zombies" Dead female flies lure males to mate

　　A deadly fungus that infects and controls the consciousness of flies, and then devours them from the inside out sounds tragic, but this is only the beginning of a terrible fungal reproductive strategy, as the last blow of the fungus, its spores poke out of the infected female fly carcass, emitting a seductive smell, and even luring the male fly to mate with the female fly carcass!

　　When pathogenic flies infect flies, such as protruding plant stems or branches, they better spread fungal spores that emerge from their bodies, and these zombie flies cling to the branches and spread their wings open for death.

　　But for female flies, their death does not mean the end of the terrible thing, the fly mold will release female fly-like chemicals to attract male flies to mate, these odors are very effective for male flies, some healthy male flies will find zombie female flies according to the direction of the smell, and then crawl on the body of the dead female flies to mate, and eventually the male flies are also infected with fly mold, after which the male flies fly away, will spread the fly mold to other partners of the same population.

　　Microbiologists are amazed by this bizarre animal behavior, which is dangerous for the mating male flies, which are not only dead but carry infectious spores.

　　The fungus gradually invades the infection by parasitizing in the body shell of the fly, the fly fungus germinates in the body shell and then breaks through the hard outer skin, and eventually infects the fly, the fungus will grow in the body fluids of the fly, with the growth of the fly and constantly suck its internal nutrients, usually the infected fly can only survive for 5-8 days, and the fly mold spores will be released from the fly body for 2 hours after the death of the fly.

　　The researchers were curious about male flies mating with dead female flies, and when they induced male flies to mate with various female fly carcasses (some infected with fungi, some did not), they found that male flies often tried to mate with infected female flies, suggesting that fungi make these female fly carcasses more attractive, and the latest research shows that through the analysis of the chemical characteristics of female fly carcasses, the corpses contain several compounds that are difficult for male flies to resist.

　　Tempting chemistry

　　There are two compounds in the smell of dead female flies, ethyl caprylate and sesquiterpene, both of which have the characteristics of attracting insects, although the spores of the fly fungus are released from the body a few hours after the death of the female fly, but in the later stages of spore production, that is, about 25-30 hours after death, these corpses are most attractive to male flies.

　　Other species of pathogenic fungi also use chemicals to alter the behavior of host insects, and previous studies have reported that fungi from the genus Thulopodium inject the nervous system of cicadas with hallucinogenic dephosphate photocaplin and cathinone (the active ingredient in hallucinogenic mushrooms), turning cicadas into hypersexual "zombies", prompting them to mate with their partners as often as possible to achieve pathogen spread.

　　There are other similar zombie phenomena in nature, where zombie ant fungi infect humpback ants with two compounds: guanidine butyric acid and sphingosine, which are also thought to influence ant behavior. Once the fungus controls the ant's brain and nervous system, it guides the ant to crawl along the stem or shrub to the top of the plant, towards the "journey of death", the ant is controlled by the consciousness of the fungus before dying, and will clip its own jaw on the plant, playing a role in fixing the body, and then waiting for death, and then the fungus releases spores to infect more ants.

　　The researchers believe that the manipulation and imitation of fly behavior by Fly Fungus may be an explanation for the mating of male flies with dead female flies, and that The attracting male fly hosts of Fly Worm Mold may be particularly important for it because it is a specific pathogen that infects only flies, and when the path of Fly Worm Mold to obtain a new host is limited, it is crucial to ensure that the fungus spreads to the right species. (Ye Qingcheng)