A tapeworm infects worker ants and makes them live several times longer by turning their bodies more like those of queens

Deep inside the damp leaf litter of the Lenneberg Forest near Mainz, Germany, tiny worker ants of the species Temnothorax nylanderi are living surprisingly long lives. While a normal worker ant usually leads a short, busy life of just one to two years, workers carrying a parasitic tapeworm called Anomotaenia brevis can live several times longer.

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