This Killer Fungus Turns Flies into Zombies | Deep Look
Something is growing inside that fruit fly in your kitchen. At dusk, the fly points its wings straight up and dies in a gruesome pose so that a fungus can ooze out and fire hundreds of reproductive spores.
Join our community on Patreon!
DEEP LOOK is a ultra-HD (4K) short video series created by KQED San Francisco and presented by PBS Digital Studios. See the unseen at the very edge of our visible world. Explore big scientific mysteries by going incredibly small.
00:00 Introduction
00:22 Fruit Fly - Drosophila melanogaster
00:35 Fruit Fly Ingests Spores
01:00 Fruit Fly Behaves Erratically
01:11 Summiting
01:21 Fungus Takes Over The Fly’s Mind
01:38 Death Pose
01:58 Entomophthora muscae, . “The Fly Destroyer“
02:09 Spore Launchers
02:53 Secondary Spores
03:11 How Does A Fungus Take Control Of A Brain?
03:36 Can We Harness This Fungus For Our Benefit?
Some of the scariest monsters are the ones that grow inside another being and take over its body. Think of the movie Alien, where the reptile-like space creature explodes out of its victim’s chest.
That monster might be fictional, but scientists are studying a fungus that’s horrifyingly real — at least for the flies it invades, turns into a zombie-like state and kills in order to reproduce.
“Oh, it’s a nightmare for the flies,” said entomologist Brad Mullens, who studied the fungus at the University of California, Riverside.
The fungus is known by its scientific name, Entomophthora muscae, which means “fly destroyer.” It lives off houseflies and fruit flies, among others.
“It’s a crazy system,” said Carolyn Elya, a biologist at Harvard. “The fungus only kills at dusk.”
Like a killer puppeteer, the fungus follows a precise clock.
At dusk on the fourth or fifth day after it picks up a fungal spore, an infected fruit fly stops flying. It starts behaving erratically, for example climbing up and down toothpicks that Elya puts into the vials where she keeps the infected insects.
Then the fly climbs to the top of the toothpick, a behavior Elya and other scientists refer to as “summiting.”
In an unusual twist, the fly then extends its mouthpart down, and some liquid drips out and glues the fly to the surface it’s standing on. Over the next 10 minutes, the fly’s wings ascend until they’re pointing upwards and it dies frozen in this lifelike pose.
Soon after, white spongy fungus oozes out of its abdomen. This white goo is made up of hundreds of lollipop-shaped protrusions which each launch a microscopic bell-shaped spore at high speed. Now the spores just need to get into another fly to grow.
--- Could this or a similar fungus “zombify” humans?
“No, it’s very unlikely,” Elya said. “We can control our bodily temperature to kill invaders.”
--- Read the entire article on KQED Science:
--- Shoutout!
🏆Congratulations🏆 to the following fans on our Deep Look Community Tab for coming up with the top titles for a horror movie starring this fungus:
Joginiz - “Flyday the 13th’
KingXDragoon - “Pretty Fly for a dead guy“
Laura Garrard - The Fungus Among Us!!
Lysiasolo - “Parafungal activity“
De paus van de Lilith Kerk - The whitecorpse horror (as an ode to HP Lovecraft “the Dunwich horror“)
--- Thank you to our Top Patreon Supporters ($10 per month)!
Trae Wright
Justin Bull
Bill Cass
Alice Kwok
Sarah Khalida Mohamad
Stefficael Uebelhart
Daniel Weinstein
Chris B Emrick
Seghan Seer
Karen Reynolds
Tea Torvinen
David Deshpande
Daisuke Goto
Amber Miller
Companion Cube
WhatzGames
Richard Shalumov
Elizabeth Ann Ditz
Robert Amling
Gerardo Alfaro
Mary Truland
Shirley Washburn
Robert Warner
johanna reis
Supernovabetty
Kendall Rasmussen
Sayantan Dasgupta
Cindy McGill
Leonhardt Wille
Joshua Murallon Robertson
Pamela Parker
Roberta K Wright
Shelley Pearson Cranshaw
KW
Silvan Wendland
Two Box Fish
Johnnyonnyful
Aurora
George Koutros
monoirre
Dean Skoglund
Sonia Tanlimco
Guillaume Morin
Ivan Alexander
Laurel Przybylski
Allen
Jane Orbuch
Rick Wong
Levi Cai
Titania Juang
Nathan Wright
Syniurge
Carl
Kallie Moore
Michael Mieczkowski
Kyle Fisher
Geidi Rodriguez
JanetFromAnotherPlanet
SueEllen McCann
Daisy Trevino
Jeanne Sommer
Louis O’Neill
riceeater
Katherine Schick
Aurora Mitchell
Cory
Nousernamepls
Chris Murphy
PM Daeley
Joao Ascensao
Nicolette Ray
TierZoo
--- Follow KQED Science and Deep Look:
Patreon:
Instagram:
Twitter:
KQED Science on :
Facebook Watch:
--- About KQED
KQED, an NPR and PBS affiliate in San Francisco, CA, serves Northern California and beyond with a public-supported alternative to commercial TV, radio and web media.
Funding for Deep Look is provided in part by PBS Digital Studios and the members of KQED.
#fruitflies #deeplook
1 view
54
9
4 weeks ago 00:52:01 1
[growwithjo] Do This Low Impact Workout Everyday To Seriously Lose Weight | growwithjo
4 weeks ago 00:31:20 8
[ТАКА] ОН ВЕЛИКИЙ БОГО УБИЙЦА НО ЕГО СВЕРГЛИ И ОН ПОПАЛ В АЛЬТЕРНАТИВНЫЙ МИР ЧТОБЫ СТАТЬ БОГОМ ВОЙНЫ...
4 weeks ago 00:01:57 1
[CNBC Television] Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine shows positive immune response in early study
4 weeks ago 00:07:34 2
[Tell It Animated] The Evolution of JIGSAW / SAW’s Antagonists (ANIMATED)
4 weeks ago 00:01:50 1
The Flash 3x07_ Barry Caitlin #4 (Killer Frost_ You did this to me!)
1 month ago 00:04:03 2
[Movieclips] To Be or Not To Be - Hamlet (3/10) Movie CLIP (1990) HD
1 month ago 00:09:05 3
[Andrew Tsai] Painkiller - M1 Apple Silicon Parallels 16 - MacBook Air 2020
1 month ago 00:05:50 5
[GamelutioN] Evolution of Ghostface in Video Games
1 month ago 00:02:35 1
[Movieclips] Jack the Giant Killer (2013) - A Narrow Escape Scene (2/10) | Movieclips
1 month ago 00:47:07 11
Equestria Girls: Classic Cartoon Collection Episode 100 On NickToons Airing From October 28th (28/10/2024)
1 month ago 00:03:16 6
Thornhill - nerv [Official Music Video]
1 month ago 00:02:50 2
[Movieclips] Smokin’ Aces (10/10) Movie CLIP - The Way of the World (2006) HD
1 month ago 00:02:07 1
US: Laken Riley’s emotional note read in court, as her convicted killer looks on
1 month ago 00:29:34 7
[Errors & OS Network] Pinkamena Error (Reupload)
1 month ago 00:02:18 2
[CG5] Murder Hornet (song)
1 month ago 00:05:20 5
[MetaBallStudios] (Video game) MONSTERS Size COMPARISON 👹 3D Animation
1 month ago 00:00:09 16
[AsaMate] We GOTTA Get SPONGEBOB Back 2 [ENHANCED]
1 month ago 00:12:09 30
[Lady Lens ] Teacher’s Bias: Student with Bible Judged | City Girls | Sexy Videos #shorts #reels #tiktokdance #08
1 month ago 00:03:49 2
Urge Overkill - Effigy
1 month ago 00:10:13 75
[Lady Lens ] Orphaned Boy Helps Officer’s Daughter | Hot Girls | City Girls | Hot Girl #05
1 month ago 00:06:14 4
ГТА 5 Кровавая операция в Маленьком Сеуле
1 month ago 00:44:36 11
[Law&Crime Network] College Student Found Strangled to Death in Shocking Murder
1 month ago 00:02:22 11
[Sestren NK Archives] Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - “Nocturne“ (English Version w/ Lyrics)
1 month ago 00:17:23 7
[Steven Z KILLER] Overwatch vs. TF2: Episode 2 [SFM] Team Fortress 2 Animation REACTION!!!