Animalia --> Nematoda --> Enoplea
Animalia --> Nematoda --> Enoplea
Direct, single host: Cephalotes atratus, South American tropical ant
Ants are infected when adults feed larvae feces containing M. neotropicum eggs. Eggs hatch and nematodes migrate to the gaster, mature into adults and mate. Nematode reproduction and egg development slows ant development so that eggs have incubated and matured by the time the ant begins to forage outside its nest. When eggs mature, the ant body is manipulated so that the gaster (the bulbous posterior portion) turns red, mimicking berries. Predation of ants by birds aids distribution of eggs, which pass through avian digestive systems and out through feces.
https://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2008/01/16_ants.shtml
M. neutropicum takes advantage of host behaviors in its life cycle. It manipulates the development time for ants so that they begin foraging, and thus opening themselves to predation by the definitive host, at a time when the nematodes are also maturing into an infective stage. Both ant and bird mobility aid distribution of the parasite.
The parasites' specialization limits the range of M. neutropicum to that of its hosts in the South American tropics.