These fungi infect flies, ants, and other insects, feasting from the inside out and also controlling their hosts’ movement, forcing them to relocate to higher areas. García-Roa had just come across an example of a parasitic “zombie” fungus from the genus Ophiocordyceps, a notorious gang of real-world body snatchers. A half-dozen stalk-like formations sprouted from its body like tiny, ominous mushroom clouds. He set off along the narrow trails that crisscross its dense vegetation in hopes of documenting some of its rarer residents, such as jaguars.īut he found something else, what he calls “an unrivaled situation for lovers of the hidden universe.” Perched atop a leaf, its head resembling a raisin, were the remains of a fly. García-Roa, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Valencia in Spain, was exploring Tambopata National Reserve, a slice of tropical rain forest in Peru’s southeast corner that’s famous for its biodiversity. When Roberto García-Roa set off into the Peruvian jungle one morning, he was not expecting to come face to shriveled face with a zombie.
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