Cordyceps, or “Zombie Fungus”, are a parasitic fungus that thrive in humid climates where they reproduce by infecting the brains of insects.
Cordyceps, the “zombie fungus” at the center of HBO’s The Last Of Us are a parasitic fungus that typically thrive in hot, humid climates like tropical forests. There are, however, thousands of different types of cordyceps — and each targets a specific species of insect to infect.
Naturally, the question posed by The Last Of Us is whether cordyceps could ever infect human hosts, and, thankfully, for now the answer seems to be, “No.”
Still, that doesn’t make this malicious fungus any less frightening. There’s a reason cordyceps is known as a “zombie fungus,” and it’s just as gruesome as you might expect.
23 Fascinating Photographs Of Cordyceps And The Killer Fungus’ Insect Hosts View Gallery
How Does Cordyceps Spread?
Cordyceps spread by releasing spores that infect the insect’s brain — and eventually the fruiting body of the cordyceps erupt from that insect’s head and body. When these fungal tendrils are finished growing, cordyceps spores burst from the fungus and infect any insect of the same species unlucky enough to be nearby.
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1 of 24Undeveloped, fertile heads of Cordyceps entomorrhiza emerging from the body of a beetle larva. Ian Redding/iStock/Getty Images
2 of 24Wikimedia Commons
3 of 24Wikimedia Commons
4 of 24A grasshopper infected with cordyceps. Twitter
5 of 24Ophiocordyceps sinensis sprouting from the husk of a caterpillar. Wikimedia Commons
6 of 24Cordyceps militaris, an orange-red variant of cordyceps that grows out of underground pupae. Wikimedia Commons
7 of 24A wasp parasitized by cordyceps.Wikimedia Commons
8 of 24Cordyceps locustiphila, a variant of cordyceps that targets locusts. Wikimedia Commons
9 of 24Cordyceps tuberculata on a Noctuid Moth. Wikimedia Commons
10 of 24A marauder ant infected with cordyceps.
11 of 24Cordyceps devouring an ant, sprouting from its exoskeleton in multiple regions. Wikimedia Commons
12 of 24A moth couple that has been parasitized by cordyceps. Wikimedia Commons
13 of 24Cordyceps fungi on a wingless insect.Luis Espin/iStock/Getty Images
14 of 24Cordyceps fungus growing from a bullet ant, Paraponera clavata in Costa Rica.Kevin Wells/iStock/Getty Images
15 of 24Ophiocordyceps sinensis growing on a larva in Bangkok, Thailand.Prot Tachapanit/EyeEm/Getty Images
16 of 24Cordyceps fungus infecting a caterpillar in the rainforest of Ecuador.Dr. Morley Read/Getty Images
17 of 24The parasitic fungus cordyceps killing its insect host in Peru. Kevin Schafer/The Image Bank/Getty Images
18 of 24Cordyceps killing an adult Calyptrate Fly.iStock/Getty Images Plus
19 of 24An insect parasitized by a Cordyceps fungus in the Ma Da rainforest in Vietnam.iStock / Getty Images Plus
21 of 24A tarantula infected with cordyceps. Twitter
22 of 24A villager holding the infected caterpillar husk he dug up at a mountain in Yongchuan of Chongqing Municipality, China.China Photos/Getty Images
23 of 24A mulberry silkworm pupa infected with cordyceps.Kornwipa Ponganan/Getty Images
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23 Fascinating Photographs Of Cordyceps And The Killer Fungus’ Insect Hosts View Gallery
23 Fascinating Photographs Of Cordyceps And The Killer Fungus’ Insect Hosts View Gallery
23 Fascinating Photographs Of Cordyceps And The Killer Fungus’ Insect Hosts View Gallery
23 Fascinating Photographs Of Cordyceps And The Killer Fungus’ Insect Hosts View Gallery
23 Fascinating Photographs Of Cordyceps And The Killer Fungus’ Insect Hosts
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And as noted by National Geographic, cordyceps has only one goal: to spread to as many hosts as it can.
It gets worse, though. Researchers believe that one cordyceps variant, Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, is able to infect ants in tropical regions through its spores, penetrate its exoskeleton, and actually control the infected ant’s behavior. In doing so, the fungus drives the ant to set off in search of humid microclimates where the fungus can grow — then compels the ant to latch onto a leaf vein in a suspended state of paralysis while it awaits its untimely end.
Getty ImagesA vector illustration of Ophiocordyceps sinensis, one version of cordyceps colloquially known as “caterpillar fungus.”
And as the ant clings to the leaf in its waking coma, the cordyceps feeds on its innards, slowly weaving through the ant’s body until it has completely overtaken the poor insect. Days later, the cordyceps emerges from the ant’s head, ready to once again release its spores and seek out its next victim — or victims.
Interestingly, researchers have also found that, unlike your typical zombie, cordyceps doesn’t take over the ant’s brain. Instead, it uses bioactive compounds to disrupt the ant’s nervous system and manipulate its muscles directly.
In a sense, cordyceps moves the ant like a puppet on string — only the strings are inside the ant’s body.
This is just one species of Ophiocordyceps, though. In total, researchers have identified more than 200 species — all of which infect different insects from 10 insect orders and even some spiders.
One species of cordyceps, Ophiocordyceps sinensis, preys on ghost moths and ghost moth caterpillars, for example. Oddly enough, the husks of these infected caterpillars are regularly used in traditional Tibetan and Chinese medicine, prized for its supposed qualities as an aphrodisiac, cancer treatment, and immune booster.
“It’s exciting terrain at the fringes of our understanding to look at the extent of how parasites control their host,” Barrett Klein, an entomologist at the University of Wisconsin in La Crosse told National Geographic. “If animals are so easily manipulated, what does that mean about us?”
Could Cordyceps Ever Infect Humans?
HBO’s The Last Of Us — and the game of the same name that came a decade before it — is centered around the idea that a cordyceps variant could evolve and eventually take over humans. It’s certainly a frightening idea, and one that is not too deeply rooted in the realm of science fiction.
HBOIn the HBO series, cordyceps spreads through a mycelium network, rather than spores.
Thankfully, the BBC spoke with a microbiologist named Charissa de Bekker who has studied cordyceps and its effect on zombified ants, and she said that humans don’t have much to worry about.
“Our body temperature is simply too high for most fungi to nicely settle and grow - and this is the same for this cordyceps,” she said. “Their nervous system is simpler than ours, so it would definitely be easier to hijack the brain of an insect versus our brain, also their immune systems are very different from ours… For this fungus to be able to jump from an insect to us and cause an infection is a very big leap.”
That said, cordyceps isn’t the only fungus humans have to worry about. In fact, roughly 1.7 million people are killed by fungi each year, and the World Health Organization has identified 19 different fungi that could possibly pose a threat to humanity.
One yeast-based fungus, Candida auris, for example, can invade our blood, nervous system, and internal organs. Another, Cryptococcus neoformans, can infect the nervous system and cause meningitis. Mucormycetes can lead to a flesh-eating disease known as mucormycosis, which often infects the nose, sinuses, eyes, and brain resulting in a runny nose, one-sided facial swelling and pain, headache, fever, blurred vision, bulging or displacement of the eye, and eventually tissue death.
These are just a few examples, of course, and there are even more examples of fungi that can be highly beneficial to humans. But the point is that fungi, as mysterious and frightening as they are, aren’t something to be taken lightly.
So no, it’s not likely that cordyceps will cause a zombie outbreak and bring about the end of the world — but don’t go breathing in a bunch of spores thinking they won’t affect you.
After learning about cordyceps, check out this fungus in Australia that can absorb and secrete gold. Then, see the 2,500-year-old fungus that’s as large as a blue whale.
