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Zombie caterpillar controlled by voodoo wasps


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The answer looks pretty obvious to me. If I had something crawling around under my skin I wouldn't want anything walking on me either! Probably hurts.

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The answer looks pretty obvious to me. If I had something crawling around under my skin I wouldn't want anything walking on me either! Probably hurts.

...or it learned that things crawling on it = painful stings and egg injections.

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...or it learned that things crawling on it = painful stings and egg injections.

Very true! Whether it learned or hurts, actually, come to think of it, it is probably both.

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That was incredibly hard to watch as I am almost phobic over caterpillars. But, that was really strange. I guess it could be the association with something crawling on it with pain, but if it does somehow control it how crazy is that? Very weird.

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That was incredibly hard to watch as I am almost phobic over caterpillars. But, that was really strange. I guess it could be the association with something crawling on it with pain, but if it does somehow control it how crazy is that? Very weird.

Sure.. it could hurt.. but why doesn't the caterpillar leave the cocoons? And why dies it die as soon as they hatch?

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maybe the wasp injects some kind of pheromones that makes the caterpillar act like a parent.

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maybe the wasp injects some kind of pheromones that makes the caterpillar act like a parent.

The article attached to this originally says that a few of the larva stay inside the caterpillar, still alive, after the others crawl out to make cocoons. They speculate these larva sacrifice themselves to continue controlling the caterpillar while the others are growing.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn14053

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