Ms. Pomme de Terre is shockered.

This, is a South American phorid fly.

























This is a female South American phorid fly, injecting its eggs into a fire ant with a needle-like appendage.



The resulting larva will then migrate to the ant's head and starts living there for weeks. And listen to this: "it slurps up the brain and turns the ant into a 'zombie'", almost literally. The maggot appears to almost control the ant's behaviour, making the ant march a decent 55 yards/50 meters away from the colony to avoid attacks by other fire ants.


It gets even better.


















The baby fly then DECAPITATES the ant and hatches through the head.

























Apparently, the flies do not 'feast' on other kinds of native American ants except for fire ants. And the fire ants have become terrified of the flies, resulting in some ants not wanting the leave their nest to collect food (Imagine ants not wanting to look for food! That's like bees not wanting honey and want drain water instead!).


This is not something the flies have been doing for centuries you know? They evolved and developed this method of reproduction only recently.


Ew.




*Source: National Geographic news