The Zombie Fly
This year’s top winner shows the fruiting body of a parasitic fungus breaking free from the body of a fly—the final stage of a horrific puppet act that will only repeat itself again and again.
“The image depicts a conquest that has been shaped by thousands of years of evolution,” said photographer Roberto García-Roa, a researcher at the University of Valencia in Spain. “The spores of the so-called ‘zombie’ fungus have infiltrated the exoskeleton and mind of the fly and compelled it to migrate to a location that is more favorable for the fungus’s growth. The fruiting bodies have then erupted from the fly’s body and will be jettisoned in order to infect more victims.”
