Scientists showed how the parasite broke out of the spider's body (creepy photo)

Scientists noticed a strange behavior of parasitic fungi. They seeped inside insects and sprouted from the outside of their victim's body.

According to Live Science, evolutionary biologist Roberto Garcia-Roa took a photo of the moment when the parasite spores burst out of the body of a huge spider that had been consumed by the fungus - from the spider's back, legs and head.

"Although it is possible to find insects parasitized by 'zombie' fungi in the wild, it is rare to see large spiders succumb to these fungal invaders," the biologist commented on his photo in the BMC Ecology and Evolution article.

Read also: A scary-looking spider turned out to be perhaps the most shy creature on Earth (photo)

He explained that many species of fungi parasitize the spider, and cases of parasites breaking out of the bodies of dead arachnids have been reported around the world. Most of these species belong to the families Cordycipitaceae and Ophiocordycipitaceae.

Ophiocordyceps is a genus of parasitic fungi known for its ability to turn ants into zombies by controlling their bodies before killing them.

"The forests in which these fungi live are also shared with lines of mycoparasitic fungi that can parasitize, consume, and even castrate Ophiocordyceps," said João Araujo, a mycologist at the New York Botanical Garden.

According to him, scientists have only recently begun to catalog and describe these hitherto unknown fungi that can kill other fungi.

As a reminder, seven new species of funnel-web spiders have been discovered in Israeli caves. All of them are at different stages of vision loss.

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