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Parasites brainwash grasshoppers into death dive
EFL: A parasitic worm that makes the grasshopper it invades jump into water and commit suicide does so by chemically influencing its brain, a study of the insectsâ proteins reveal. 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 â causing them to seek out and plunge into water. Once in the water the mature hairworms â which are three to four times longer that their hosts when extended â emerge and swim away to find a mate, leaving their host dead or dying in the water.
Posted by: anonymous5089 2005-09-08 |
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| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=128978 |