Food for Thought

[stinalalala]

Regardless of how frustrated I get over the house hunt, I can't help but laugh at a headline like this:
Scientists Turn Cockroaches Into Zombie Slaves

brains...brains....

Comments

[crwsz]

What gets me about this story is wondering how the hell something like this could evolve. What this copy of the article doesn't mention is that the wasps actually sting twice:

"The researchers knew that the wasps tend to sting the cockroaches once to subdue them, then administer another, more precise sting right into their victim's brain. So they suspected that the venom might work by blocking a key chemical messenger."
http://www.nature.com/news/2007/071129/full/news.2007.312.html

I mean, there are far simpler ways to kill and acquire prey. I need an evolutionary biologist to explain this one to me...

-Carter

[smirabi]

lots of wasps are predatory... nesters (that's the best way i can put it). there are some wasps that inject a spider with their pray, after which the spider makes a little web and goes on about his business until the larvae eat him/her from the inside out. also, ants are notorously predatory nesters, some of whom steal larvae from other nests to work in their own as slaves. seeing as how ants and wasps are mostly the same creature, i'd look to their common ancestor for the root of their strange behaviors regarding raising young.

i too would be very interested to hear an evolutionary biologist explain how this behavior evolved. (i'm gonna look it up on wiki right now...)