Competition 2024 – Photography – 18 and over – Marco Chan – (3) Polyrhachis sp.

By Marco Chan

A Spiny Ant clamps tightly onto a leaf while a deadly Orphiocordyceps fungi sprouts from its thorax. After being infected by the fungi, ants will become mindless zombies, crawling to higher ground where the fungi can release and spread its spores to infect even more ants.
Competition: 2024 - Photography - 18 and over
Insect order: Ants, bees, wasps and sawflies
Species: Polyrhachis sp.
Picture taken in: Thailand

Third image