Amazonian 'zombie' fungus harbors a hidden stage inside forest mosses, new study reveals
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A team led by researchers at the National Institute for Amazonian Research (INPA), in Manaus, has found evidence that the "zombie-ant" fungus (genus Ophiocordyceps), known worldwide for controlling ant behavior and forcing infected ants to bite plants before dying, also lives hidden inside mosses in the Amazon rainforest.
By analyzing the DNA of mosses collected at the Ducke Reserve in Manaus, the scientists detected the same parasitic fungus that is present not only in infected and manipulated insects but also in the mosses where the infected insect is manipulated to bite. This indicates that the fungus has one life stage as an insect parasite and another endophytic (living inside the plant) stage that had gone unnoticed until now.
The work is published in the journal IMA Fungus.
A hidden plant stage emerges
The genus Ophiocordyceps comprises more than 350 species of fungi known for infecting a wide range of insects. Some of these species are famous for behavior that sounds like science fiction: After infecting an ant, the fungus alters its behavior and forces it to leave the colony, climb vegetation and clamp its mandibles onto a specific spot—the so-called "death grip"—shortly before dying and releasing its spores.
In 2020, studies in China had already shown that a species from the same genus, known as "Himalayan gold" (O. sinensis), lived endophytically in plants in alpine regions. The major breakthrough of this new INPA study is that it demonstrates the same dual lifestyle in fungi that manipulate insects to specifically and consistently bite plants that harbor the endophytic stage of the "zombie fungus."
This suggests that the behavioral manipulation goes beyond the fungus-ant association and that the plant harboring the fungus's endophytic phase may also influence the manipulation itself.
Mosses hold the same fungus
The research was carried out at the Adolpho Ducke Forest Reserve, north of Manaus, and relied on metabarcoding, a technique that allows researchers to read the DNA of all fungi present in an environmental sample at once.
The results revealed that the fungus was present not only in infected ants but also consistently in surrounding mosses, including in plants located more than 10 meters (33 feet) away from any ant infected by the parasite.
In the Amazon, researchers had already noticed that some manipulated ant species predominantly seek out mosses to bite for the "death grip," but little was known about possible prior colonization of the moss by the same insect-parasitizing fungus.
DNA analyses showed that even highly host-specialized fungal lineages, such as O. camponoti-nidulantis (infecting Camponotus nidulans) and O. kniphofioides (infecting Cephalotes atratus), were sheltered within bryophytes in the surrounding vegetation.
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Credit: Tales Alves-Júnior et al., 2026. -
Ophiocordyceps kniphofioides in a turtle ant (Cephalotes sp.), found attached to an Octoblepharum moss. Credit: Tales Alves-Júnior et al., 2026.
A broader ecological relationship
The discovery reshapes our understanding of the life cycle of these fungi and how these organisms evolve and survive. The ability to associate with plants may help the fungus persist through periods when insect hosts are scarce and could also help explain the intriguing fidelity of certain fungal lineages to specific moss types.
"We have always thought of this fungus (Ophiocordyceps) as a parasite exclusive to insects, especially the ones it manipulates. What our data suggest is that the story is much larger: the same fungus appears to be ubiquitous in the surrounding moss communities. Our results illustrate a far closer link between the life cycles of the plants and fungi involved in the behavioral manipulation of Amazonian ants," said Tales Alves Jr., biologist, master's in botany from INPA and lead author of the study.
"The well-known behavioral manipulation caused by Ophiocordyceps may not result solely from the interaction between fungus and ant, but from a complex relationship among the fungus, its host, and the plant where the same fungus lives silently as an endophyte," added João Paulo Machado de Araújo, co-author and researcher at the Natural History Museum of Denmark (University of Copenhagen).
More information
Tales Alves-Júnior et al, Metabarcoding reveals a hidden endophytic stage of the 'zombie-ant' fungus in Amazonian mosses, IMA Fungus (2026). DOI: 10.3897/imafungus.17.196998
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Citation: Amazonian 'zombie' fungus harbors a hidden stage inside forest mosses, new study reveals (2026, July 30) retrieved 30 July 2026 from https://phys.org/news/2026-07-amazonian-zombie-fungus-harbors-hidden.html
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