Could you get more evil? Image credit: Tanzil Tafheem.
I’m sure you guys all remember the gruesome tale of the parasitic Emerald Cockroach Wasp. This is the wasp that somehow manages to ‘reprogram’ a cockroach to do its bidding by delivering a series of precisely placed injections of venom.
There’s been some new work done by Ram Gal and Frederic Libersat in understanding exactly what part of the cockroach brain the wasp is looking for. Carl Zimmer reports.
These researchers have already done some pretty amazing work in understanding how the venom affects the cockroach, and they even figured out the antidote to bring the cockroaches back from la-la land. Here’s Ed Yong’s story on that piece of work: link (horribly creepy video included!)
hey, why can’t I see who posted what? are u hiding aatish?
For some reason this theme doesn’t display post authors. Which is a shame, because it’s looks neater than many of the others.
some more creepy parasitic wasp videos:
body invaders
parasitic wasps and aphids: