Four Zombie Parasites

Hymenoepimecis Argyraphaga "Make a Web for me!"

A Costa Rican wasp, these insects lay their eggs onto orb spider’s abdomens. After around a few weeks of living on the spider the wasp larvae will infuse a chemical into the spider making the spider spin a strange web unlike the other common spiderwebs. The use of this web is for the wasp larvae to support its cocoon that it will build after devouring the unlucky spider.

Dicrocoelium Dendriticum "The Nighttime Parasite"

This liver fluke starts out in a cow's liver and reproduces there, the eggs are then "deposited" out through the feces of the cow. The eggs then wait around for a snail to come along to eat the feces. They hatch in the snail and make their way to the surface of the snail. Now, a snail has a defensive mechanism where they wall up the parasite and spits out the balls of slime containing the parasites. This is exactly what the parasites want. The parasites will wait around (these are very patient parasites) for an ant to come and eat the slime. They will spread around the insides of the ant, most going straight to the brain. When night comes, the parasites will take over the ant and make the ant clutch a blade of grass to wait for a grazing animal to eat it. When dawn draws near and they have not been eaten they let the ant take back over, the ant will continue as if nothing has happened. The reason for not waiting all day is that the ant may die from being baked in the sun (the parasites die when the ant dies) this continues until the ant is eaten and the entire parasite cycle restarts.

Euhaplorchis Californiensis "Fishy Dance of Death" This parasite starts out in the ocean dwelling horn snail and releasing larvae who finds its next host, a killfish. Once they find a killfish, they immediately latch onto the fish's gills and target the brain. By realeasing chemicals into the fish the parasite can make the fish hop in and out of the water, and wiggle around to catch the attention of a water bird. The reason being that the parasite needs the get in the water bird's gut to reproduce. After getting in the bird the parasite will reproduce and the larvae will be dropped out through the bird's poo, a horn snail will eventually eat the poo, restarting the cycle.

Spinochordodes Tellinii "Suicidal Jumpers" These parasitic worms dwell in water. They get together in a writhing mass to breed and release their larvae into the water. The grasshoppers and crickets soon have the larvae in their systems from the larvae infested waters they drank. Once inside the host, the parasites start to develop and grow. When they grow enough, the parasite releases a chemical which control's the host's central nervous system forcing the grasshopper or cricket to jump into water to their watery deaths. The parasite then leaves the body to reproduce and the cycle restarts.