Scientists Create Zombie Cockroaches

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."

Credit where credit is due...

[bruins01 (992422)]

The title should read: Emerald Cockroach Wasps Create Zombie Cockroaches, Scientists Notice

Re:Credit where credit is due...

[Plutonite (999141)]

This is the most awesome thing I've read in some time. In highly complex behaviors like these, I often wonder how the hell the evolutionary development [of the wasp] proceeded in order for the organism to deal with its prey like that. Not just one carefully administered sting, but two, then drags it home as if it knows what it just did. Hot damn.

Re:Credit where credit is due...

[stranger_to_himself (1132241)]

For more insect related awesomeness the BBC made Life in the Undergrowth [bbc.co.uk] a documentary series presented by David Attenborough. There's some really incredible stuff in there. Wasps especially seem to have evolved lots of these rather sinister behaviours.

Re:Credit where credit is due...

[DerWulf (782458)]

It is highly complex but if you watch the video it becomes appearant that any form of sedation would have been an evolutionary advantage so the path could have been strength (wrestle the cockroach 'till it dies) > sedation > mind control. Once reduced to simple steps such complex behaviour is still awesome but less mind-boggling :-D

Re:Credit where credit is due...

[leonardluen (211265)]

well I, for one, welcome our new mind-controlling wasp overlords!

how do we know the wasp didn't just make you type that?

hey...ow!

i also welcome our wasp overlords!

Zombie ants are cooler

[jordyhoyt (1013713)]

If you find this amazing, check out the wikipedia article on these amazing parasites [wikipedia.org]!

Re:Credit where credit is due...

[140Mandak262Jamuna (970587)]

A simpler form of this behavior was observed by Charles Darwin. Wasps laying eggs on live caterpillars which were eaten alive by wasp larvae! That convinced Darwin that no moral, just, fair God would design such a system. It was one of his motivations in seeking natural explanations for behavior of animals. Darwin wanted to plug the hole, "I am bad because God designed me to be bad and sinful" defense for the sinners. Because if Paley's watchmaker God was true, then every immoral behavior is a designed behavior, specifically created by God. It is ironic that present day fundies paint Darwin in the darkest hue.

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.

Re:Credit where credit is due...

[StrawberryFrog (67065)]

Almost, it should be: "Emerald Cockroach Wasps Create Zombie Cockroaches, Scientists Imitate".

From the blurb above:
Researchers were also able to create their own zombies by injecting unstung cockroaches with a compound

Re:Credit where credit is due...

[E++99 (880734)]

Of maybe just, "Scientists Observed Mimicking Behavior of Emerald Cockroach Wasps."

Eh?

[fyngyrz (762201)]

"Scientists create Zombie Cockroaches"

Yes, and then we elect them. Wake me up when the system changes.

Re:Eh?

[PietjeJantje (917584)]

Ford Prefect, talking to Arthur Dent about an immense robot that came from a flying saucer (destroying a huge area including Harrods), and said "Take me to your Lizard.":

"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?"

Deja Vu

[SetupWeasel (54062)]

I can't believe I remembered this. [slashdot.org]

How is this for deja vu

[Daath (225404)]

I remembered this [slashdot.org], believe it or not. Almost 6 years to the day ;P Well, who's counting ;P

slashdotters arrested

[jacquesm (154384)]

In other news, large hordes of nerds are being arrested all over the planet while injecting nubile females with what appears to be insect venom. Natalie Portman in intensive care after a severe allergic reaction.

Re:That is blatant racism

[DrWho520 (655973)]

Loose the italics next time. I know it is hard to resist, but explaining a joke just makes it !funny.

So many freaky parasites so little vomit left...

[F34nor (321515)]

This one freaks the shit out of me for some reason. http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=53 [damninteresting.com]

Well, I for one

[427_ci_505 (1009677)]

Well, I for one am scared shitless of our new overlords.

Dupe

[sentientbrendan (316150)]

http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/02/04/1649211 [slashdot.org]

I wish they'd just google for the old title... that would catch most of these dupes.

Human Zombies

[Miratus (1196407)]

This reminds me of a bit of research done by the psychofarmacology department of the University of Rotterdam in the late eighties. They set out to discover if there was any substance to the reports from aid-workers and missionaries in Africa that 'zombies' were for real. Several well-documented cases existed, involving 'dead' individuals returning to their old villages, months or years after their burial, with only hazy memories of what happenend during their time away. With some help from anthropologists it was discovered that the 'zombies' were in fact poisoned with a complex witch-doctor mix of herbs and toxins, the only really important ingredient of which was a powerful neurotoxin of animal origin, which inhibited active thought and the forming of memories. The individual who was doused in this contact-poison would fall into a death-like coma soon afterwards. Then it was simply a matter of digging the body up fast and whacking it over the head a few times to get the person to wake up. If that failed (hitting the proper dosage is a bitch), the grave could be closed, no one the wiser. The 'lucky' ones woke up as addled 'zombies', with no will of their own and able to hear and obey simple instructions and could be sold as slaves. The toxin was recreated by science (without the unnecessary extra ingredients) and proved quite powerful when tested on lab-rats. The neurotoxin blocked key neural pathways, but turned out to be easily 'washed away' by a sufficiently large dose of Na+ ions, such as when the victim ingested common table-salt. Having proved that it there was a scientific truth to the zombie-myth, but finding no easy synthesis of the neurotoxin nor any medical use, the research group moved on. I was given their report while in high-school by one member of the team, who thought it was funny that I was VERY interested in this voodoo-zombie story that she had mentioned to me. I should go look up that report or contact her again for further details, but perhaps someone who is more skilled in research and farmacology can just pull this out of a database for all of us?

Re:Human Zombies

[Magada (741361)]

They got the story just a wee bit wrong, your scientist friends did. Yes, the main ingredient for "zombification" is a venom - pufferfish venom or some other analogous neurotoxin) for the paralysis bit and clinical depression as an added bonus, but the traditional cocktails which have been studied also contain a lysergine and some THC to complete "operation mindfuck", plus additional bits of stuff that inhibit the autonomous nervous system and slow down metabolic processes - sometimes in non-obvious ways. This is something that's been in development since the stone age began. If some obscure herb is in there, it's in there for a reason.

Btw, if you ever meet a zombie, make her a nice cup of St John's wort tea.

Brains?

[FranklinDelanoBluth (1041504)]

But do they eat brains? I don't think so. So, technically they're not zombies.

Oh Thank God

[Kadmium (679058)]

I read the title as "Scientologists create zombie cockroaches" and actually caught myself thinking, "Yeah, they've been working up to this for a while now."

Re:First thing I thought of was:

[Misanthrope (49269)]

Don't blame me I voted for zombie Lincoln.

Re:Implications?

[SetupWeasel (54062)]

Will Smith is not a zombie cockroach. He is a Scientologist. I may be splitting hairs here, but there is a difference.

Re:Good

[One Childish N00b (780549)]

This should serve once and for all to dispel the myth of a benevolent creator.

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?