Zombie Moths

There is a group of fungi in the genus Cordyceps that are capable of manipulating the behavior of insects that they invade. There are well over 100 known related species (Ophiocordyceps spp.) that infect a wide variety of insects, including butterflies, moths and beetles, and at least 35 that perform “mind control” on their hosts. Fortunately, humans appear to be immune from these fungi.

One Cordyceps fungus replaces a moth’s tissues (see photo) and controls the moth’s end-of-life movements in an attempt to increase the likelihood that its spores are dispersed to new hosts. The spikes you see on the pictured moth are a result of the fungus’s invasion of the moth. (Photo by Janni Jacobs; discovery of this Zombie Moth in Vermont by Jake Jacobs)

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