Parasites Brainwash Grasshoppers into Death Dive

Posted by urikalish • 7/24/08 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS]
Tags: biology

"The parasitic Nematomorph hairworm (Spinochordodes tellinii) develops inside land-dwelling grasshoppers and crickets until the time comes for the worm to transform into an aquatic adult. Somehow mature hairworms brainwash their hosts into behaving in way they never usually would – causing them to seek out and plunge into water."

www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7927

User Comments

8/02/08

flamingpoodle

Brainslugs are real!
Sort of.

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8/06/08

Chrislag

How many millions of years of evolution to get get this complex relationships and behaviors?!

Something i just do not want to think about before bed time.

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