A Recently Discovered Fungus in Brazil Mummifies Prey, Emitting Fuzzy Purple Stalk from the Body

A new fungus has been discovered in Brazil that mummifies its prey into a kind of sap and shoots out a purple stalk from the carcass.

The specimen, which feeds on trapdoor spiders in the rainforest, is in the same family as the zombie ant fungus made famous in HBO’s “The Last of Us.”

João Araújo, from the New York Botanical Garden, told DailyMail.com that the new fungus, Purpureocillium, infects its hosts like the zombie fungus, as the spores fall on the victim and penetrate the body.

The fungal tissue slowly spreads throughout the spider’s body and organizes itself to produce the fruiting body that grows from the anthropoid’s head.

“Once inside the spider’s body, the fungus multiplies as yeast-like cells, overcoming the host’s immune system and causing disease,” Araújo told DailyMail.com.

Development continues as these individual cells begin to connect with each other.

“Immediately after the death of the host, these yeast-like chains of cells begin to connect and germinate into filaments, or hyphae.

‘They begin to organize themselves to produce the fruiting body from the host; varies by species, eg zombie ant fungus often grows on the back of the head, Purpureocillium normally grows on the spider’s cephalothorax.’

Purpureocillium mushrooms have been found in different parts of the world, such as Japan, and have long been treated as the same species.

“Our study proposes that P. atypicolum is actually composed of several undescribed species; it’s called a ‘species complex’ and our new find in Brazil is just one among many,” said Araújo,

“We think our new discovery is limited to Brazil or South America.”

However, the bright purple color of the fungus remains a mystery, but Araújo said it could have to do with the metabolites they produce.

Parasitic mushrooms have become popular after the release of HBO’s ‘The Last of Us’.

The series follows Joel (Pedro Pascal) as he escorts teenager Ellie (Bella Ramsey) through Boston, Massachusetts after a fungus spreads across the globe, turning victims into zombies that spread the fungus spores. and infect everyone who comes in contact with it.

Araújo told DailyMail.com in February that cordyceps previously evolved to allow the fungus to turn ants into zombies.

“Our hypothesis is that about 45 million years ago the fungus infected the first ant,” Araujo said.

‘The cordyceps was [first] into beetles and then jumped to ants because they were both [in the same] tree trunk.’

Araújo went on to explain that around 35 ophiocordyceps fungi are known to turn insects into zombies, found in the United States, Brazil, Japan and parts of Africa.

In the HBO series, the fungus turns humans into cannibalistic monsters, but this does not occur in nature.

Araújo said it makes the bugs look like they’re drunk.

“Zombie ants, when infected, just want a cool, quiet place to provide a platform for the fungus,” he said.

‘That is his ultimate goal in life: to find a good place for the parasite to thrive.

‘There is no aggression. Infected ants will not attack. They act very strangely, like a drunk ant.’

While the newly discovered fungus and cordyceps won’t be infecting humans anytime soon, other fungi in the world today pose a dangerous threat.

‘I think in the first scene [from The Last of Us]where scientists in the 1960s said that people should be aware of fungal infections, that was a very good interpretation,” Araújo said.

In October 2022, the World Health Organization published its first list of life-threatening fungi, which includes a catalog of the 19 fungi that pose the greatest threat to public health.