Sitting atop a leaf in the Peruvian jungle, this dried-up carcass was once a fly. Now blooming with bulbous stems, it has been overrun by a fungus (genus Ophiocordyceps) that has just two goals: self-replication and dispersal. The fungus begins as a single spore before quickly germinating in the fly's body and spreading to manipulate the insect's behavior in a way that is beneficial for growth - of the fungus, that is. (Other types of zombie fungi, like the ant-afflicting Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, force their prey to climb up a branch, bite down with their mandibles and remain there until death.) For its big finale, the fungus bursts out of the fly's body to rain down spores on its next unsuspecting victim, where the cycle begins anew.
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