Last year I wrote about the emerald cockroach wasp, Ampulex compressa, which injects venom into cockroaches to turn them into zombie hosts for their parasitic offspring. (More posts on Ampulex here.) The scientists I wrote about have been trying to figure out what exactly the venom does to the nervous system of their victims, and they've discovered that it interferes with a neurotransmitter called octopamine. New Scientist has an update. And they also have a link to a YouTube video that offers more than you may want to see of this awesome parasitic manipulation.
- Log in to post comments
More like this
As this is a Zombie Day on scienceblogs.com, here is a re-post of one of my old post about one of the coolest parasites ever (from February 04, 2006):
I am quite surprised that Carl Zimmer, in research for his book Parasite Rex, did not encounter the fascinating case of the Ampulex compressa (…
One of the coolest parasites ever (from February 04, 2006):
I am quite surprised that Carl Zimmer, in research for his book Parasite Rex, did not encounter the fascinating case of the Ampulex compressa (Emerald Cockroach Wasp) and its prey/host the American Cockroach (Periplaneta americana, see…
Carl Zimmer has a new post up on zombie cockroaches and the wasps that love them. This is seriously incredible stuff.
The wasp slips her stinger through the roach's exoskeleton and directly into the cockroach's brain. She apparently using sensors along the sides of the stinger to guide it through…
There are 20 new articles in PLoS ONE today and several are, IMHO, very bloggable:
Why Do African Elephants (Loxodonta africana) Simulate Oestrus? An Analysis of Longitudinal Data:
Female African elephants signal oestrus via chemicals in their urine, but they also exhibit characteristic changes to…
Ampulex and Cockroach is such a great story!
We had some guesses about the neurophysiological mechanism but now Lior Rosenberg did a great job in this paper (http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/reprint/210/24/4411) to show not only that Octopamine has this de-zombie-ing effect but also which other neuromodulators do not affect the stung cockroach.
And mentioning evolution in action and parasitic systems, a paper in Nature reports an adaptive arms-race frozen in mud! (http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v450/n7171/full/nature06291.html)