Being somewhat zealous and at a lack for subjects, the winter season has made it somewhat convienent for me to go out and investigate the tip tops of limbs and branches, also anything slightly above ground, in search of hapless little insects that have succumbed to this disease. Though not as graphic as the grasshopper in my previous post, there are tell tale signs of the disease in this ant, which I found rigid and anchored to the stem of a Gray Dogwood twig.I would also like to note that the reason I suspect this ant of having been infected by the fungi is that I was reading an article on the infection by Elio Schaechter and Elio states: "Many ants that normally live on the forest floor drastically change their behavior when infected by the fungi. The kind of fungi involved (often ascomycetes of the genus Cordycepts) do not develop rapidly, at least for some time. Because of this moderation, the infected ants stay alive and remain active, but alter their deportment; they acquire an urge to climb up the stalks of vegetation and trees. When reaching a certain height, they impale themselves with their mandibles and remain perched aloft for the rest of their life and thereafter." http://www.socgenmicrobiol.org.uk/pubs/ ... 080003.pdf
Okay with all that being said and out of the way here are my pics, be sure to read the link, it is most interesting.
Obviously this ant had been there on that twig for some time and may explain why some of the spore bearing, fruiting bodies or spikes, are gone or missing. Having read more than I thought that I would on this subject I have found that fungi and mankind have a bit in common. For example out the billions to trillions of spores released by a fungus, a mushroom for example, only one spore out of that number may germinate. Consider now the thousands, if not more, sperm cells produced by the human male. Only one will eventually fertilize the female egg cell while the others will eventually die. There are many more simularities ( hope I spelled that right) between man and fungi and for some odd reason, I get the feeling that maybe...one day they, the fungal spores, could mutate?
Anyway, the next time you dine out or even at home and you are having that fresh garden salad, think about all that sliced fungus on your plate. You may have a lot more in common with it than you suspect!
BRUCE...that video is great... 
