It’s time to pay another visit to Cordyceps, the fungus that turns its hosts into spore-sprouting zombies.

The fungus, which can be found in many parts of the tropics, penetrates an insect’s exoskeleton and then work its way into its host’s body. At first the ant seems normal to the human eye, but eventually it makes its way to a leaf, where it clamps down with its mandibles. Cordyceps then sprouts out of the ant’s body, lashing it to the leaf’s underside, and producing a long stalk tipped with spores. The spores can then shower down on unfortunate insects below.

Now Hughes is looking more closely at how the fungus pulls the strings on its insect marionette. First off, how does