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Scientists Create Zombie Cockroaches
Posted by
Zonk
on Fri Nov 30, 2007 04:16 AM
from the almost-as-good-as-'them' dept.
from the almost-as-good-as-'them' dept.
Reservoir Hill writes "Zombie insects might sound like a B-movie plot device (quicktime video) but to the emerald cockroach wasp (Ampulex compressa), they're a tried and tested way to provide food for their hungry larvae. The wasp relies on cockroaches for its grisly life cycle but unlike many venomous predators, which paralyze their victims before eating them, the wasp's sting leaves the cockroach able to walk, but unable to initiate its own movement. Researchers have discovered that the wasps sting the cockroaches once to subdue them, then administer another, more precise sting right into their victim's brain. The venom works to block a neurotransmitter called octopamine with a similar action to dopamine, which is involved in preparations to execute complex behaviors such as walking. Then the wasp grabs the cockroach's antenna and leads it back to the nest 'like a dog on a leash', says one researcher. The team found that they could restore spontaneous walking behavior in stung cockroaches by giving them a compound that reactivates octopamine receptors in the insects' central nervous system. Researchers were also able to create their own zombies by injecting unstung cockroaches with a compound that blocks the receptors producing a similar effect to that of the venom."
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Texas Makes Zombie Fire Ants 398 comments
eldavojohn writes "What do you do when a foreign species has been introduced to your land from another continent? Bring over the natural predator from the other continent. Scientists in Texas have introduced four kinds of phorid flies from South America to fight fire ants. These USDA approved flies dive bomb ants and lay an egg inside the ant. The maggot hatches and eats away juicy tender delicious ant brain until the ant is nothing more than a zombie that wanders around for two weeks before the head falls off and the ant dies. A couple of these flies will cause the ants to modify their behavior and this will be a very slow acting solution to curb the $1 billion in damage these ants do to Texas cattle ranches and — oddly enough — electrical equipment like circuit breakers. You may remember zombifying parasites hitting insects like cockroaches."
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Credit where credit is due... (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Credit where credit is due... (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
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Hawk moth pupae?
Re:Credit where credit is due... (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re:Credit where credit is due... (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
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This is just one species of wasp with one specific cocroach (works on other insects too?) whereas great many species of wasps did not make the leap from "paralyze -> chew and/or drag on your own"
Heck, spiders have nice living food storage thing going..
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Re:Credit where credit is due... (Score:5, Funny)
hey...ow!
i also welcome our wasp overlords!
Parent
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Wow! So that proves that God is made of cake!
Sorry, sorry.
Zombie ants are cooler (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
Re:Credit where credit is due... (Score:5, Interesting)
The evolution is easily explained. Wasps sting and kill cockroaches and lay an egg on the dead roach to provide ready food for their larvae. Some wasps had less potent venom, strong enough to paralyze but taking longer to kill. These roaches would stay alive longer and provide better, less rotten bodies for the larvae. Now you can see the selection mechanism, give it a few million years and a billion generations, you can see behavior that is incredible.
Parent
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A common tactic among people who don't believe evolution, is to use phrases like "DNA mutation" as if to imply that there was no brain locating behavior, and then a single mutation happens and (like magic) a fully-formed brain locating behavior exists. As if this one wasp named Neo was born and he was their savior. That's a straw man. You're arguing against something that no evolutionary scientist cla
Re:Credit where credit is due... (Score:5, Informative)
From the blurb above:
Researchers were also able to create their own zombies by injecting unstung cockroaches with a compound
Parent
Re:Credit where credit is due... (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Eh? (Score:5, Insightful)
"Scientists create Zombie Cockroaches"
Yes, and then we elect them. Wake me up when the system changes.
Re:Eh? (Score:5, Funny)
"It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see
"You mean, it comes from a world of lizards?"
"No," said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and
coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee forced
down him, "nothing so simple. Nothing anything like so
straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders
are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the
people."
"Odd," said Arthur, "I thought you said it was a democracy."
"I did," said Ford. "It is."
"So," said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse,
"why don't people get rid of the lizards?"
"It honestly doesn't occur to them," said Ford. "They've all got
the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government
they've voted in more or less approximates to the government they
want."
"You mean they actually vote for the lizards?"
"Oh yes," said Ford with a shrug, "of course."
"But," said Arthur, going for the big one again, "why?"
"Because if they didn't vote for a lizard," said Ford, "the wrong
lizard might get in. Got any gin?"
Parent
Deja Vu (Score:5, Informative)
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How is this for deja vu (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
A new degree of Slashdotting... (Score:3, Insightful)
For the wasp this looks like a very useful move. Why haul your food when it can walk for you?
Actually that's how the political system works too (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Actually that's how the political system works (Score:3, Funny)
slashdotters arrested (Score:5, Funny)
That is blatant racism (Score:3, Insightful)
When jocks inject large amounts of toxic liqued into women to get them to loose control over their bodies, that is just guys being guys, but when nerds do it "CALL THE COPS". For the humor impaired, alcohol is far easier to obtain in large doses then insect venom
I say enough is enough, we have to strike back. Revenge of the nerds!
Mmm, sounds like a good title for a movie, what is the number for hollywood?
Re:That is blatant racism (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
Re:That is blatant racism (Score:4, Interesting)
Though, to be fair, you might have been asking the GP to unleash further italics on the unsuspecting world, as in "Loose the dogs of war."
Parent
Zombies? (Score:2, Interesting)
Must favor "unreasonably huge subsidies to the Zombie Cockroaches planet."
With Hunger, Global Warming and catostrophic ozone loss affecting the lives of billions, dont you think the scientests/Zombie Cockroaches have something better to do? Hmmm?
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With Hunger, Global Warming and catostrophic ozone loss affecting the lives of billions, dont you think the scientests/Zombie Cockroaches have something better to do? Hmmm?
Oh, I love comments like this. ...and so on.
"You are studying cockroaches, hm? Interesting. But MILLIONS are starving, are you going to feed them with cockroaches? Forget about your work, do something, HUMAN LIVES are on stake"
You know, there is this thing called fundamental research. You never know when data like this will be useful.
So many freaky parasites so little vomit left... (Score:4, Interesting)
Well, I for one (Score:4, Funny)
Dupe (Score:4, Informative)
I wish they'd just google for the old title... that would catch most of these dupes.
Human Zombies (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Human Zombies (Score:4, Informative)
Btw, if you ever meet a zombie, make her a nice cup of St John's wort tea.
Parent
Brains? (Score:4, Funny)
Good (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Good (Score:5, Insightful)
Alright, you've posted with your real account, which has no history of trolling, so either this is a genuine statement or you forgot to hit 'Post Anonymously'.
I have to ask, at the risk of being modded troll myself... why?
People have been doing worse things than this to one another for centuries, usually in the name of one God or another, and you are taking the existence of a zombie cockroach as your final proof of a Godless universe? Is there a justification here I'm just not seeing?
Parent
Oh Thank God (Score:4, Funny)
Huge opportunity (Score:3, Funny)
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I hear those are what "I am Legend" is about.
Re:Implications? (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
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I was thinking that, could it be done?
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You might do better to welcome your new emerald wasp overlords. If you're able to do so, that is.
Re:First thing I thought of was: (Score:5, Funny)
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