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CNN
14-02-2025
- Science
- CNN
Newly discovered fungus turns cave-dwelling spiders into ‘zombies'
Scientists in Europe have identified a previously unknown species of fungus that turns cave spiders into 'zombies.' The fungus lures them out of their webs before instigating an untimely death and then uses the spiders' corpses to spread its spores. 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. Zombie spider fungus discovery The newfound species is part of a larger branch of fungi that exclusively infects spiders. Researchers observed a different species of Gibellula (G. aurea found in Brazil) possibly manipulating spiders to move to the underside of leaves before death, as described in a November 2022 study coauthored by Araújo. However, the maneuver was not as strikingly evident as it is when G. attenboroughii targets cave spiders, Araújo said. So far, scientists have only observed G. attenboroughii infecting the spiders Metellina merianae and Meta menardi, both cave-dwelling orb weavers that are found in Europe. The first sighting of the peculiar fungus has a colorful backstory: In 2021, a television crew first spotted the fungus on an orb weaver spider while filming a show in an abandoned gunpowder storeroom at Castle Espie Wetland Centre in Northern Ireland's County Down. The crew noticed that the spider placed itself in an exposed position before death, away from its web, suggesting the fungus had caused behavioral change. Further observations revealed more infected spiders in caves in both Northern Ireland and Ireland, all positioned in exposed areas of the roof or walls of the chambers, according to the study. 'Most spiders that are web-building spiders very much like to stay on their web. They're built to be good inside of a web, but then they're actually quite bad at walking around on the ground,' said Dr. Jay Stafstrom, an expert on arachnid sensory ecology and postdoctoral researcher at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. 'The fact that a fungus can infect something and then behaviorally alter that animal so that it then helps the fungus spread, I think it's just very intriguing,' said Stafstrom, who was not part of the study. The researchers said they are unsure of the exact mechanics and inner workings of the fungus. But the team hypothesizes the fungus lures the spiders out of their lairs where they are exposed to circulating air currents, which helps spread its spores, said Araújo, who is also an honorary research associate at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in the United Kingdom. The authors have not yet identified which metabolites — compounds produced by the fungus that can interact with other organisms — G. attenboroughii is releasing in the brain of the host. More research is required to know the fungus' ecological impact, but Araújo said he does not believe there is any cause for concern about the affected spider species. 'Fungi have evolved many millions of years ago, more than 100 million years ago, and they have been coexisting with these spiders and other species of fungi and other insects,' Araújo said. 'Actually, we can hypothesize that they keep the forest in balance,' he added, pointing to the case of the zombie ant fungi. Scientists have documented the lethal parasite regulating the insect population, Araújo said. More to discover on fungi Around 150,000 species of fungi have been formally documented, but it's estimated that number is only around 5% of the diversity of fungus out there to be discovered, said Dr. Matthew Nelsen, an evolutionary biologist and research scientist at Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History, who was not part of the new study. 'This study draws attention to this challenge and will further inspire the community to work to close this gap,' Nelsen added in an email. The authors also noted the presence of mycoparasites observed eating the zombie spider fungus, 'demonstrating that these spiders are important food sources for fungi, which in turn support other fungi. Together, this serves to shine a light on the complex and diverse world around us,' Nelsen said. The premise of zombie fungus can quickly turn into a horror story when reimagined as a sci-fi creature infecting humans, such as in the HBO series 'The Last of Us,' said to have been inspired by the zombie ant fungus. (HBO shares parent company Warner Bros. Discovery with CNN.) Since this newly discovered fungus only affects spiders, humans need not worry about Gibellula attenboroughii, Nelsen said. 'While there are absolutely some cave-dwelling fungi that are problematic for humans, this is part of a group of fungi that only infects spiders. Jumping to humans would require it to evolve tolerance to our warm body temperature and to circumvent our immune system, both of which serve as strong defenses against most fungi,' he added. Araújo said he and his team plan to continue studying the group of fungi that infects spiders to understand how these species are related, their origins, how they evolved, and more. Further understanding of these fungi could eventually lead to potential application in crop protection or even human medicine. 'Imagine, (with) a fungus that can control the behavior of a spider, which metabolites they're releasing in the brain of this spider,' Araújo said. 'This could be something really revolutionary for Alzheimer's and degenerative diseases and the ones that affect the brain. So maybe there's hope there.'
CNN
14-02-2025
- Science
- CNN
Newly discovered fungus turns cave-dwelling spiders into ‘zombies'
Scientists in Europe have identified a previously unknown species of fungus that turns cave spiders into 'zombies.' The fungus lures them out of their webs before instigating an untimely death and then uses the spiders' corpses to spread its spores. 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. Zombie spider fungus discovery The newfound species is part of a larger branch of fungi that exclusively infects spiders. Researchers observed a different species of Gibellula (G. aurea found in Brazil) possibly manipulating spiders to move to the underside of leaves before death, as described in a November 2022 study coauthored by Araújo. However, the maneuver was not as strikingly evident as it is when G. attenboroughii targets cave spiders, Araújo said. So far, scientists have only observed G. attenboroughii infecting the spiders Metellina merianae and Meta menardi, both cave-dwelling orb weavers that are found in Europe. The first sighting of the peculiar fungus has a colorful backstory: In 2021, a television crew first spotted the fungus on an orb weaver spider while filming a show in an abandoned gunpowder storeroom at Castle Espie Wetland Centre in Northern Ireland's County Down. The crew noticed that the spider placed itself in an exposed position before death, away from its web, suggesting the fungus had caused behavioral change. Further observations revealed more infected spiders in caves in both Northern Ireland and Ireland, all positioned in exposed areas of the roof or walls of the chambers, according to the study. 'Most spiders that are web-building spiders very much like to stay on their web. They're built to be good inside of a web, but then they're actually quite bad at walking around on the ground,' said Dr. Jay Stafstrom, an expert on arachnid sensory ecology and postdoctoral researcher at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. 'The fact that a fungus can infect something and then behaviorally alter that animal so that it then helps the fungus spread, I think it's just very intriguing,' said Stafstrom, who was not part of the study. The researchers said they are unsure of the exact mechanics and inner workings of the fungus. But the team hypothesizes the fungus lures the spiders out of their lairs where they are exposed to circulating air currents, which helps spread its spores, said Araújo, who is also an honorary research associate at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in the United Kingdom. The authors have not yet identified which metabolites — compounds produced by the fungus that can interact with other organisms — G. attenboroughii is releasing in the brain of the host. More research is required to know the fungus' ecological impact, but Araújo said he does not believe there is any cause for concern about the affected spider species. 'Fungi have evolved many millions of years ago, more than 100 million years ago, and they have been coexisting with these spiders and other species of fungi and other insects,' Araújo said. 'Actually, we can hypothesize that they keep the forest in balance,' he added, pointing to the case of the zombie ant fungi. Scientists have documented the lethal parasite regulating the insect population, Araújo said. More to discover on fungi Around 150,000 species of fungi have been formally documented, but it's estimated that number is only around 5% of the diversity of fungus out there to be discovered, said Dr. Matthew Nelsen, an evolutionary biologist and research scientist at Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History, who was not part of the new study. 'This study draws attention to this challenge and will further inspire the community to work to close this gap,' Nelsen added in an email. The authors also noted the presence of mycoparasites observed eating the zombie spider fungus, 'demonstrating that these spiders are important food sources for fungi, which in turn support other fungi. Together, this serves to shine a light on the complex and diverse world around us,' Nelsen said. The premise of zombie fungus can quickly turn into a horror story when reimagined as a sci-fi creature infecting humans, such as in the HBO series 'The Last of Us,' said to have been inspired by the zombie ant fungus. (HBO shares parent company Warner Bros. Discovery with CNN.) Since this newly discovered fungus only affects spiders, humans need not worry about Gibellula attenboroughii, Nelsen said. 'While there are absolutely some cave-dwelling fungi that are problematic for humans, this is part of a group of fungi that only infects spiders. Jumping to humans would require it to evolve tolerance to our warm body temperature and to circumvent our immune system, both of which serve as strong defenses against most fungi,' he added. Araújo said he and his team plan to continue studying the group of fungi that infects spiders to understand how these species are related, their origins, how they evolved, and more. Further understanding of these fungi could eventually lead to potential application in crop protection or even human medicine. 'Imagine, (with) a fungus that can control the behavior of a spider, which metabolites they're releasing in the brain of this spider,' Araújo said. 'This could be something really revolutionary for Alzheimer's and degenerative diseases and the ones that affect the brain. So maybe there's hope there.'
CNN
14-02-2025
- Science
- CNN
Newly discovered fungus turns cave-dwelling spiders into ‘zombies'
Scientists in Europe have identified a previously unknown species of fungus that turns cave spiders into 'zombies.' The fungus lures them out of their webs before instigating an untimely death and then uses the spiders' corpses to spread its spores. 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. Zombie spider fungus discovery The newfound species is part of a larger branch of fungi that exclusively infects spiders. Researchers observed a different species of Gibellula (G. aurea found in Brazil) possibly manipulating spiders to move to the underside of leaves before death, as described in a November 2022 study coauthored by Araújo. However, the maneuver was not as strikingly evident as it is when G. attenboroughii targets cave spiders, Araújo said. So far, scientists have only observed G. attenboroughii infecting the spiders Metellina merianae and Meta menardi, both cave-dwelling orb weavers that are found in Europe. The first sighting of the peculiar fungus has a colorful backstory: In 2021, a television crew first spotted the fungus on an orb weaver spider while filming a show in an abandoned gunpowder storeroom at Castle Espie Wetland Centre in Northern Ireland's County Down. The crew noticed that the spider placed itself in an exposed position before death, away from its web, suggesting the fungus had caused behavioral change. Further observations revealed more infected spiders in caves in both Northern Ireland and Ireland, all positioned in exposed areas of the roof or walls of the chambers, according to the study. 'Most spiders that are web-building spiders very much like to stay on their web. They're built to be good inside of a web, but then they're actually quite bad at walking around on the ground,' said Dr. Jay Stafstrom, an expert on arachnid sensory ecology and postdoctoral researcher at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. 'The fact that a fungus can infect something and then behaviorally alter that animal so that it then helps the fungus spread, I think it's just very intriguing,' said Stafstrom, who was not part of the study. The researchers said they are unsure of the exact mechanics and inner workings of the fungus. But the team hypothesizes the fungus lures the spiders out of their lairs where they are exposed to circulating air currents, which helps spread its spores, said Araújo, who is also an honorary research associate at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in the United Kingdom. The authors have not yet identified which metabolites — compounds produced by the fungus that can interact with other organisms — G. attenboroughii is releasing in the brain of the host. More research is required to know the fungus' ecological impact, but Araújo said he does not believe there is any cause for concern about the affected spider species. 'Fungi have evolved many millions of years ago, more than 100 million years ago, and they have been coexisting with these spiders and other species of fungi and other insects,' Araújo said. 'Actually, we can hypothesize that they keep the forest in balance,' he added, pointing to the case of the zombie ant fungi. Scientists have documented the lethal parasite regulating the insect population, Araújo said. More to discover on fungi Around 150,000 species of fungi have been formally documented, but it's estimated that number is only around 5% of the diversity of fungus out there to be discovered, said Dr. Matthew Nelsen, an evolutionary biologist and research scientist at Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History, who was not part of the new study. 'This study draws attention to this challenge and will further inspire the community to work to close this gap,' Nelsen added in an email. The authors also noted the presence of mycoparasites observed eating the zombie spider fungus, 'demonstrating that these spiders are important food sources for fungi, which in turn support other fungi. Together, this serves to shine a light on the complex and diverse world around us,' Nelsen said. The premise of zombie fungus can quickly turn into a horror story when reimagined as a sci-fi creature infecting humans, such as in the HBO series 'The Last of Us,' said to have been inspired by the zombie ant fungus. (HBO shares parent company Warner Bros. Discovery with CNN.) Since this newly discovered fungus only affects spiders, humans need not worry about Gibellula attenboroughii, Nelsen said. 'While there are absolutely some cave-dwelling fungi that are problematic for humans, this is part of a group of fungi that only infects spiders. Jumping to humans would require it to evolve tolerance to our warm body temperature and to circumvent our immune system, both of which serve as strong defenses against most fungi,' he added. Araújo said he and his team plan to continue studying the group of fungi that infects spiders to understand how these species are related, their origins, how they evolved, and more. Further understanding of these fungi could eventually lead to potential application in crop protection or even human medicine. 'Imagine, (with) a fungus that can control the behavior of a spider, which metabolites they're releasing in the brain of this spider,' Araújo said. 'This could be something really revolutionary for Alzheimer's and degenerative diseases and the ones that affect the brain. So maybe there's hope there.'
CBC
10-02-2025
- Science
- CBC
Behold the fungus that turns spiders into zombies and marches them to their deaths
Tim Fogg walked past the zombie spider fungus many times over the years before he learned what it actually was. As someone who explores caves for a living, Fogg would often see little globs of fuzzy white fungus on the walls of Ireland's subterranean networks, sometimes with spider legs sticking out of them. Now, he's a co-author of a study that identifies those globs as a newly discovered species of fungus that takes control of spiders, essentially turning them into zombies, and marches them to their deaths. Zombified spiders infected by deadly fungi in dark caves may be the stuff of nightmares for some people. But, for Fogg, it's a dream. "I find it fascinating and extraordinary and really intriguing," he told As It Happens host Nil Köksal. Though, he admits, it's "sad for the spiders." The findings are published in the journal Fungal Systematics and Evolution. Discovered during a BBC shoot It all started in 2021 in an abandoned gunpowder storage shed near Belfast. A film crew was shooting footage for the BBC nature program Winterwatch, when they stumbled across several dead spiders on the roof, enmeshed in a prickly looking white substance. They sent samples to Harry Evans of U.K. office of the Centre for Agriculture and Biosciences International, who theorized the crew had found a fungus not yet known to science. Fogg saw the documentary, and immediately recognized the stuff from caves around Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. So he reached out to Evans, who promptly put him to work. "Over the last two and a half years, we've been watching them and getting samples and culturing the samples and doing DNA sampling on them," Fogg said. "The results are a new species, and this interesting behaviour." The fungus — called Gibellula attenboroughii after famed nature documentary host David Attenborough — appears to affect two cave-dwelling species of spiders, Metellina merianae and Meta menardi. Both spiders prefer to spend their time in dark, dank places. But the fungus forces them to abandon the holes and crevices they call home, and march to open, high-up spaces, like cave walls or cellar roofs, to die. "When they're dead, they have a lot of long filaments coming out of them, with the spores on them," Fogg said. Those spores are then carried on the breeze, raining down upon other, unwitting spiders. If this sounds familiar, it's because Gibellula attenboroughii is one of many species of parasitic fungi around the world that take over and kill their hosts, which are usually insects. Andy MacKinnon, a forest ecologist in British Columbia who studies fungi, calls these "zombie fungi," and says they even exist in Canada. "It's not an uncommon thing, but it's uncommonly interesting," MacKinnon, who was not involved in the study, told CBC. Perhaps the best known example is Ophiocordyceps, a parasitic genus of fungi that infects ants and other insects from the inside out, forcing them to climb up high and explode, thereby showering spores upon their brethren. It's the fungus that inspired The Last of Us, a popular video game and television series about a fungi-fuelled zombie apocalypse. Gibellula attenboroughii is part of a totally different fungi family than its ant-exploding counterpart, says João Araújo, a mycologist at Denmark's Museum of Natural History, and another co-author of the study. But the behaviour it induces — making its host defy its natural instincts by climbing up high to die — is very similar. Some research suggests the zombie ant fungus works by flooding its host with the feel-good hormone dopamine in order to make it do its bidding. Other research suggests the fungus acts on the ant's muscles, rather than its mind. "If you were the ant, your brain may be able to contemplate that your legs were moving all on their own and taking you to places you wouldn't normally go," MacKinnon said. "You might be able to ponder that as an ant." Whether this new fungus bestows that particular horror on Ireland's cave spiders, or simply blisses them out with happy hormones, is not yet clear. "We don't know the mechanisms behind it," Araújo said. "This species was just discovered, there is a lot to investigate about it yet." The pros of zombie fungi While zombie fungi are no friend to the ants of Brazil or the cave-dwelling spiders of Ireland, MacKinnon says they have an important role in the natural world, keeping their hosts species' populations in check. "They're a predator of sorts," he said. "They don't prowl around on four legs and chase the insects, but they are performing the same function in the ecosystem." They pose no danger to humans, and may even be beneficial. Some kinds of zombie fungi have long been used in traditional medicine, for all kinds of things, including improving energy and libido. And some preliminary research suggests they could boost immune responses and help slow the growth of cancer cells. That gives hope to Fogg, who spent years collecting dead spiders from dark caves. "Hopefully, there's something in these amazing fungi that will help humans in the future medically," he said.
Yahoo
06-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Scientists Discover a Fungus Turning Spiders Into Zombies
A new species of fungus straight out of a nightmare has been found lurking on the ceiling of an abandoned gunpowder storeroom in Northern Ireland, enmeshed in the body of an unlucky spider host. Beneath a crown of coralline protrusions, the disfigured carcass of a usually reclusive orb-weaving cave spider Metellina merianae was barely recognizable when a BBC documentary crew first encountered it while filming the series Winterwatch. The gnarly specimen was sent to a team led by mycologist Harry Evans from the Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International. With extra specimens collected from caves across the Irish isle, the team have identified the fungus as a new species they've named Gibellula attenboroughii after Sir David. In each specimen, the fungi was enmeshed with a carcass of either M. merianae or another orb-spider species host, the European cave spider Meta menardi. Both of these spiders are 'sit-and-wait predators', usually concealing themselves close to their webs. They don't linger out in the open, yet each unlucky spider appears to have been steered against its nature to the exposed surfaces of cave ceilings. This is very similar to the behavior of ants infected by Ophiocordyceps fungi in the Brazilian Atlantic rainforest, a cerebral takeover in which dopamine seems to play a role. "The fact that Gibellula-infected spiders are found in prominent positions on the roof or ceiling of their subterranean habitats indicates a behavioral change, possibly manipulated by the fungus," the authors write. "The sporulating cadavers would be exposed to the air currents circulating through the caves promoting the release and subsequent dispersal of the dry spores through the system." While genetic analysis shows the cave and gunpowder room specimens are all one species of fungi, you wouldn't know from looking. Evans' team suspects the variety of forms this species takes could be a result of the different environmental conditions where it grows. In the underground gunpowder store, for instance, the complete absence of air movement may explain why the spores adhered in column-like forms to the fungal surface, and without light, underwent a loss of pigment. "Within the cave system, especially in the threshold zone favored by Metellina merianae, there would be both diffuse light and air currents to dislodge and disperse the [spores] resulting in a decreased incidence of long chains or blocks of spores," the team writes. The discovery has also led scientists to suspect the same fungus might be behind infected M. merianae specimens in Wales, which live in the entrances of rock fissures or similar man-made niches around a lakeside locality where there are no caves. There, they seem to have moved from these safe crevasses to the surrounding or overhanging sphagnum moss, perhaps puppeteered by the fungus. Delving into herbarium and literature archives, the team found illustrations and other records of similar fungi that may in fact be Gibellula. "There is a hidden diversity in the British Isles and that many more species of Gibellula remain to be discovered," they note. The research is published in Fungal Systematics and Evolution. Remarkable Fossil Discovery Hints at Antarctic Origins of All Modern Birds DNA Confirms Orcas Prey Upon One of Australia's Deadliest Marine Predators 'Beyond Doubt': Proteins in Fossil From Actual Dinosaur, Claim Scientists
