Mind Controlling Fungus creates a "zombie ant"

Fungi in the genus Ophiocordycepsare known to infest an ant’s brain, manipulating the ant to drunkenly wander along the rain-forest leaves before clamping its jaws around the main vein on the leaf’s underside mass grave, past research by Hughes found the ants are manipulated to clamp down on that leaf at high noon, though they don’t actually die until sunset, possibly a strategy that gives the fungus a long cool night during which it can burst from the ant’s head and begin growing its spore-releasing stalk.