Ryan Herbison is a graduate student in parasitology at the University of Otago. A few years ago, Ryan collected about 1,300 earwigs and over 2,500 sandhoppers from gardens and a beach in New Zealand. He then dissected and examined the insides of their heads in search of worms that coiled themselves within some of the insects.
The worms are parasites that force earwigs and sandhoppers to march into bodies of water, drowning themselves so the worms’ aquatic offspring can thrive.
“Like a back-seat driver, but a bit more sinister,” said Mr. Herbison, describing these mind-controlling parasites. “And sometimes they may just grab the steering wheel.”
Just how they do that, though, has remained a bit of a mystery…
More details about this over at The New York Times.
(Image Credit: Haseeb Randhawa and Kim Miller/ The New York Times)
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/21655/invasion-zombie-animals
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/21716/7-more-zombie-animals
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/56018/8-parasites-create-zombie-animals