Real life zombification in insects....

Mickeroo

I've read quite a bit about parasites that literally turn their insect hosts into zombies (minus the human flesh cravings i suppose). THis one that effects wasps I just saw on reddit is particularly weird:

For an individual wasp worker, the story begins during a springtime encounter with Xenos vesparum fly larva, which might be found under a leaf or even deposited in a colony. (More on that later.) The larva leaps onto the wasp, burrowing into its abdomen, where it will feed on its host's blood. That's just the beginning.

In coming weeks, the larva grows larger and stronger. The wasp grows, but slowly; it's smaller than its peers, with smaller wings. It also becomes withdrawn. Other workers continue to forage, care for larval siblings, maintain the hive and defend the colony, but infected wasps act for themselves. "They lose any specifically social behaviour," said Manfredini.

Early in summer, when a hive is busiest, the infected wasp leaves and travels, as if under command, to some unknown but predetermined place. Other parasitised wasps converge there, too. When enough have gathered, mating begins -- not for wasps, which now have shrunken and non-functional ovaries, but the parasites.

Male Xenos vesparum, now fully grown and winged, wriggle from their hosts' stomachs. They copulate with females, which remain mostly inside their hosts, poking only one end of themselves outside.

For wasps that were infected by male Xenos vesparum, the story ends. They die, mostly from pathogens entering through the gaping holes in their sides. Wasps still hosting female Xenos vesparum, however, live on. They gather food and fatten themselves, a treat experienced only by wasp royalty, then travel to sites where queens gather in late autumn.

There they spend winter, resting beside the queens. "The parasite is triggering a queen behaviour, but you can't say they're really queenlike, because they're not reproductive," said Manfredini. Come spring, the real queens go off to prepare nests, but infected wasps stay behind, waiting. Inside them, gestation is nearly complete.

Then, with exquisite timing, the wasps depart. Some search out foraging areas, leaving Xenos vesparum larvae like traps underneath leaves. Others return to their colonies at mid-day, when the real queen is out foraging, and while colony-defending workers have yet to mature. "After that, they start wandering among the colonies," spreading their deadly larval load, said Manfredini. "They don't lay eggs. They don't build colonies. They're completely anarchic."

Freaky stuff! Imagine if one of these parasites somehow evolved to be able to infect humans :eek:

swordofislam

Good!
Wasps are assholes!

swordofislam

Good!
Wasps are assholes!