Camponotine Ant

aka Spiny ant / Fish-hook ant / Forest ant - infected by an insect-pathogenising fungus Ophiocordyceps unilateralis (Ophiocordycipitaceae) and has a stalk sprouting out from the back of its head.! ant zombification begins when an Ophiocordyceps fungus shoots spores onto an insect. the parasitic fungus gradually takes over the ant's brain and direct the insect to a cool moist location... then the ant uses its mandibles to affix itself to a major vein on the underside of a leaf... where the host remains until its eventual death... and fruiting bodies erupt from the ant's head and spread more spores.!