A Wasp and its Cockroach Zombies

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Nature is fantastic, and frightening:

http://loom.corante.com/archives/2006/02/02/the_wisdom_of_parasites.php

This is about a wasp that inserts its stinger into roach's brains and then controls their movements.

― Nemo (JND), Friday, 3 February 2006 12:59 (nineteen years ago)

I think I knew a guy who was related to this wasp, actually

― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Friday, 3 February 2006 13:26 (nineteen years ago)

You knew Peter Mandelson?

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 3 February 2006 13:28 (nineteen years ago)

Ha ha, in the comments to this article somebody compares his wife to the wasp.

― Nemo (JND), Friday, 3 February 2006 13:31 (nineteen years ago)

Which I guess makes him a roach.

― Nemo (JND), Friday, 3 February 2006 13:33 (nineteen years ago)

Gross. Filthy insect bastartds.

WTF @ the dreary pedantic "ID" proponent in the comments bit? More depressing than the horrid wasp and its vile manuevre.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Friday, 3 February 2006 13:37 (nineteen years ago)

Oh, I thought this was going to be about Dick Cheney...

― Dave will do (dave225.3), Friday, 3 February 2006 13:40 (nineteen years ago)

It's probably impossible to have a science blog nowadays without having to argue constantly with people about "intelligent design."

I know evolution doesn't work that quickly, but whenever I read something like this I get the fear that some insect or a squirrel (or Dick Cheney) is going to figure out how to do this to us.

― Nemo (JND), Friday, 3 February 2006 13:45 (nineteen years ago)

It's probably impossible to have a science blog nowadays without having to argue constantly with people about "intelligent design."

otfm. it's also really annoying when you're googling evolution-related science things and get amost nothing but creationist web sites

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Friday, 3 February 2006 14:41 (nineteen years ago)

but about the subject of thread: creeepy

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Friday, 3 February 2006 14:42 (nineteen years ago)

nature is so strange and awesome

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Friday, 3 February 2006 14:43 (nineteen years ago)

Adaptations like this always boggle my mind. I can understand simpler examples of natural selection, like how moths colored to blend in with tree bark are eaten less and pass on the trait to their offspring. But examples like this show that every organism has within it vast and bizarre metamorphic possibilities. How does something like this arise in the first place?

― Nemo (JND), Friday, 3 February 2006 15:26 (nineteen years ago)

That link at the top doesn't work! Do you have something else?

― Chuck_Tatum (Chuck_Tatum), Friday, 3 February 2006 16:01 (nineteen years ago)

I found out about it here:

http://www.boingboing.net/2006/02/03/wasp_performs_roachb.html

BoingBoing has an excerpt and is probably driving tons of traffic to the blog and slowing it down.

― Nemo (JND), Friday, 3 February 2006 16:08 (nineteen years ago)

This is the coolest thing I've read all year!

― Thermo Thinwall (Thermo Thinwall), Friday, 3 February 2006 18:51 (nineteen years ago)

I know evolution doesn't work that quickly, but whenever I read something like this I get the fear that some insect or a squirrel (or Dick Cheney) is going to figure out how to do this to us.

Let's address the really disturbing portion of this hypothesis; squirrels with stingers.

― Dan (I'm Hoping Dick Cheney's Is Vestigal) Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 3 February 2006 18:55 (nineteen years ago)

It's terrifying, isn't it?

Would their stingers be bushy, I wonder?

― Nemo (JND), Friday, 3 February 2006 19:26 (nineteen years ago)

I've never examined a squirrel tail all that closely before - whp know's what's under all that deceivingly cute fluff!!!

― Thermo Thinwall (Thermo Thinwall), Friday, 3 February 2006 19:32 (nineteen years ago)

this is a perfect idea for my squirrel horror movie idea

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Friday, 3 February 2006 19:33 (nineteen years ago)

But millions of years of natural selection has allowed Ampulex to reverse engineer its host. We would do well to follow its lead, and gain the wisdom of parasites.

made me think of brain-computer coupling for control of robot members, equipment for non-invasive measurement of brain potentials and EEG, and stuff like that

― S. (Sébastien Chikara), Friday, 3 February 2006 20:24 (nineteen years ago)

wasps are evil bastards, proven by science.

― AaronK (AaronK), Friday, 3 February 2006 20:51 (nineteen years ago)

I for one welcome our new wasp overlords.

― Thermo Thinwall (Thermo Thinwall), Friday, 3 February 2006 21:07 (nineteen years ago)

My girlfriend is an entomologist who studies wasps. She sent me a bunch of pictures of these guys a month ago I think. Parasitic wasps that live in ant hills are also really cool.

― My Girlfriend, My Entomologist (cprek), Friday, 3 February 2006 21:49 (nineteen years ago)

You are a lucky man to have an entomologist girlfriend. When I was in college I had a crush on a girl I used to see on the bus who was always reading books about bees.

I interviewed a pecan grower once, and he told me he prevented caseworm damage to his pecans by populating the trees with tiny Trichogramma wasps, which prey on the caseworms and their larva. He said it allowed him to avoid using pesticides and worked very well. Apparently there are lots of farmers and agricultural researchers trying to figure out how to use the wasps to control a wide variety of pests. Significantly, the pecan farmer's biggest pest was squirrels (of the non-stinger variety, I presume).

― Nemo (JND), Monday, 6 February 2006 12:55 (nineteen years ago)

My fave parisite tale is that of Toxoplasma, a protozoan which is believed to actually alter the behaviour of its hosts; apparently making them indulge in more risk-taking behaviours, so that the host is more likely to be eaten by predators which allows the protozoan to move on to the next stage in its life-cycle.

ps. Up to 50% of humans in the western world are believe to host Toxoplasma cysts in their muscles and brains - more in countries such as France where people prefer to eat rare meat.

― Stone Monkey (Stone Monkey), Monday, 6 February 2006 13:18 (nineteen years ago)

"parisite" is a typo and not a pun on the French, I'm afraid.

― Stone Monkey (Stone Monkey), Monday, 6 February 2006 13:19 (nineteen years ago)

Parenting books talk about keeping pregnant women and babies away from the cat litter to avoid toxoplasma. I didn't know it was linked to riskier behavior.

― Nemo (JND), Monday, 6 February 2006 13:30 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, apparently studies done on rats and mice who are infected with toxoplasmosis show that they will run towards the scent of a predator animal, or seek out sources of noise rather than move away from them.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Monday, 6 February 2006 14:09 (nineteen years ago)

Not to mention the fact that if you pick it up off cat litter or something, you could go blind, or even die as happened in the documentary film Trainspotting.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Monday, 6 February 2006 14:10 (nineteen years ago)

It's one of the opportunistic infections that goes off the rails when AIDS kicks in fully.

― Stone Monkey (Stone Monkey), Monday, 6 February 2006 14:20 (nineteen years ago)

I did a google search for Toxoplasma and it turns out there's a post about it on the same blog:

http://loom.corante.com/archives/2006/01/17/the_return_of_the_puppet_masters.php

This guy really loves his parasites.

― Nemo (JND), Monday, 6 February 2006 14:55 (nineteen years ago)

In it he cites research linking the brain parasites to changes in human personality, schizophrenia and even the very phenomenon of cultural diversity.

― Nemo (JND), Monday, 6 February 2006 15:20 (nineteen years ago)

Man! I'm getting my brain checked for parasites first thing tomorrow!

― Thermo Thinwall (Thermo Thinwall), Monday, 6 February 2006 15:38 (nineteen years ago)

And if there aren't any, make sure your doctor gives you some!

― Nemo (JND), Monday, 6 February 2006 16:03 (nineteen years ago)

Oh, they're up there!

― Thermo Thinwall (Thermo Thinwall), Monday, 6 February 2006 16:29 (nineteen years ago)

*twitches*

― Thermo Thinwall (Thermo Thinwall), Monday, 6 February 2006 16:35 (nineteen years ago)

Do you realize that some day there could evolve have a human parasite that feeds on computer radiation, altering it host's behaviour so that he/she will spend several hours a day having pointless Internet debates instead of doing something productive?

Oh, wait...

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Monday, 6 February 2006 16:40 (nineteen years ago)

What is my favourite LP by a band that usually isn't included in the band's canon, let me think...

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Monday, 6 February 2006 16:41 (nineteen years ago)

The author was on This American Life a while back. He talked about this one fish that finds another much bigger fish, gets inside its mouth, and eats its tongue. The larger fish calmly uses the parasite as a replacement tongue. That has eyes.

― Annabelle Lennox (Arachne), Monday, 6 February 2006 17:01 (nineteen years ago)

Oh wow, I have to check that out. I love this quote from the Toxoplasma article:

"if Toxoplasma can alter the behavior of a rat, could it alter a human? Obviously, this manipulation would not do the parasite any good as an adaptation, since it's pretty rare for a human to be devoured by a cat. But it could still have an effect."

― Nemo (JND), Monday, 6 February 2006 17:38 (nineteen years ago)

Maybe this explains Cat Ladies, though. Their brains have been warped to be attracted to the smell of cat urine!

― Press Rip And Give Me The MP3 Out Of It (kate), Monday, 6 February 2006 17:45 (nineteen years ago)

The larger fish calmly uses the parasite as a replacement tongue. That has eyes.

Why do I continue to read this thread? Why?

According to the programme I saw, toxoplasma doesn't so much make you run towards the scent of cats as reprogramme your brain so that "run away" becomes "run towards". So you might find yourself wandering down dark alleyways, waving your brand new iPod around and shouting "hey, come get me!"

Sadly toxoplasma may not realise that the muggers are not interested in eating you.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Monday, 6 February 2006 17:46 (nineteen years ago)

http://research.soe.purdue.edu/ackerman48/images/planktonevil.jpg

― AaronK (AaronK), Monday, 6 February 2006 17:49 (nineteen years ago)

Maybe this explains Cat Ladies, though. Their brains have been warped to be attracted to the smell of cat urine!

I think this is likely, especially as the rare instances in which cats devour humans are usually when a cat lady dies in her house and ends up feeding her 300 cats the only way she can.

― Nemo (JND), Monday, 6 February 2006 18:05 (nineteen years ago)

Bizarro Squirrel

http://images.andale.com/f2/109/111/19538131/1107984705093_super_squirrel_1_.jpg

― Dom iNut (donut), Monday, 6 February 2006 20:11 (nineteen years ago)

...except the critter put on his undershirt backwards... yup.

― Dom iNut (donut), Monday, 6 February 2006 20:12 (nineteen years ago)

???

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 11:29 (nineteen years ago)

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