The phorid fly might be tiny, but it has a powerful weapon in its possession: the ability to turn ants into gruesome zombies. After identifying an ant victim, the fly swoops down to lay a single egg into the ant’s head. The developing larva takes control of the ant’s body, first forcing it to walk far away from the rest of the ant colony. As the larva grows and eats the ant’s brain from the inside, the ant dies. Eventually, the ant’s head falls off and the next generation of zombie-creating fly emerges to repeat the cycle.

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