I spotted (get it!) this little story on the BBC yesterday it's about a species of wasp that lays it's eggs inside the living bodies of ladybirds, creepy enough, but the story doesn't end there. The wasp larvae doesn't actually kill the ladybird, it grows inside it's abdomen until it "hatches", at which point it spins a cocoon that sits under the body of the beetle all the while controlling the ladybird with chemicals that affect it's brain keeping it in a semi-paralysed state.
The purpose of this behaviour (from the wasps' point of view) seems to be to use the ladybird to protect the larvae whilst it develops by injecting the host with brain toxins that cause erratic twitching and grasping actions in the body of the bug thereby deterring predators from attacking.
The cringe-worthy thing about this life-cycle is that 25% of the ladybirds actually survive the ordeal, presumably with a sore bum and a headache.... like too many beers followed by an inadvisable curry.. maybe...
3 comments:
Doesn't the Catholic church do something very similar?
CB: :: chuckle ::
I once got an infestation of lady bugs on the 7th floor of a building I was living in. It was bizzare. I wonder if they were actually a wasp controlled zombie lady bug herd?
CB, those guys are far more sinister, their victims are actually brain washed into worshipping them for their parasitism.
Charlene - euw!
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