This spider looks like the victim of a zombie fungus. But scientists say it’s a big faker

When Alexander Bentley poked a mass covered in what appeared to be a deadly parasitic fungus during a group tour in August 2025, he was shocked to see that the spider beneath it was still alive.

The herpetologist, based in Ecuador, often leads group tours through a stretch of the Amazon rainforest and is no stranger to cordyceps, the parasitic fungi featured in the post-apocalyptic franchise The Last of Us. 

Known as “zombie fungus,” it grows inside insects and arachnids, then manipulates the host to disperse its spores “in a way that makes the victim behave like a zombie,” according to the National Library of Medicine. 

This spider had grown two tendril-like structures, known as tubercles, on the back of the abdomen, in yellow and white — usually a sign that the cordyceps have successfully killed its host.

“I was convinced it was a cordyceps,” Bentley told As It Happens host Nil Köksal. “I thought it was the spider infected with the fungus that had somehow survived the whole infection process and was still alive.” 

It turned out to be a completely new species of arachnid that seems to mimic fungus like cordyceps, possibly to lure prey or ward off predators The findings were published in Zootaxa. 

Scientists are celebrating the discovery, but not everyone is convinced the spider’s strange appearance is evidence enough to say it’s mimicking the fungus. 

A new species of spider 

When Bentley saw the spider showing signs of life, he turned to iNaturalist, a citizen-science platform, for answers. 

The users there hypothesized that the spider was mimicking a type of parasitic fungi known as gibellula, which is part of the Cordycipitaceae family.

“Other specialists quickly replied that this is an incredible organism. It’s not infected. There’s no fungus involved,” Bentley said. “This is the spider, and it’s almost definitely a new species to science.”

Bentley turned to his colleague, study co-author David Ricardo Díaz-Guevara, to help confirm the identification.

Díaz-Guevara travelled from Quito, Peru, to begin observations and analyses alongside Bentley. 

“Determining whether it was a new species required meticulous and detailed work on the spider’s morphology,” said Díaz-Guevara an arachnid curator at the National Institute of Biodiversity in Ecuador, who specializes in this genus of spiders.

After comparing the spider’s features to existing literature of the other seven species within the genus, Díaz-Guevara confirmed this was a new spider species now known as Taczanowskia waska.

“We were just so excited,” Bentley said.

Mycologist Monika Fischer from the University of British Columbia says the finding is unlike anything she’s ever seen before, and shows the value of platforms like iNaturalist.

“Love to see citizen science having an impact,” Fischer, who wasn’t involved in the research, said in an email. 

Why does it look like a fungus?

Bentley says there are two theories about why the spider might mimic the fungus.

The first is an aggressive response. The Taczanowskia genus of spiders doesn’t typically trap its food using webs. Instead, they use their two enlarged claws that lie on either side of their forelimbs. By using fungi as cover, the prey may be unaware that it is being hunted while the spider waits to strike.

Or it could be a defense mechanism, so predators like birds avoid consuming them.

It’s possible the spider’s appearance isn’t a form of camouflage at all, says Andrew Swafford, an associate professor of biology at Middlebury College in Vermont.

“I didn’t see a lot of compelling evidence that the elaborations on the abdomen serve as a form of camouflage or mimicry other than they look similar to cordyceps stalks to us humans,” Swafford, who wasn’t part of the research, said.

“Until further research is done, it’s possible that these elaborations could be used for anything or nothing at all.”

If it is what it appears to be, Swafford says it would be the first case of a spider or insect mimicking late-stage cordyceps that he’s aware of. 

However it works, Bentley says this discovery, by far, tops his list of things he’s found while out in the rainforest.

“We’ve seen a lot of crazy things and have discovered several other species,” he said. “But this is by far the rarest, craziest, and most unique thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”