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A new terrifying species of parasitic wasp transforming its victims into suicidal zombies has been discovered in the Amazon.
The nightmarish insect turns spiders into helpless drones who abandon their own colonies to do what the wasp commands – before its larvae eat them alive.
Philippe Fernandez-Fournier
The macabre discovery – made in Ecuador – was discovered by scientists from the University of British Columbia in Canada.
They say that the behavior of the wasp is a particularly "hardcore" form of diversion – that is, when one animal manipulates another.
After leaving their homes, spiders are forced to weave a special cocoon for the wasp larvae that will hatch and eat the spider.
"Wasps manipulating the behavior of spiders have already been observed, but not at such a complex level," said Philippe Fernandez-Fournier of the Department of Zoology of the University of British Columbia.
Alamy
Philippe Fernandez-Fournier
"Not only does this wasp target a species of social spider, but it makes her leave her colony, which she rarely does."
The parasitic wasp targets a spider called Anelosimus eximius, known to live in large colonies and cooperate with others to capture prey and rear their young.
The researchers noticed that some of the spiders were infected with a parasitic larva and that they were seen moving away from their colonies to weave closed canvases.
"It was very strange because they do not do it normally, so I started taking notes," Fernandez-Fournier said.
Philippe Fernandez-Fournier
Philippe Fernandez-Fournier
It was then that stunned scientists noticed that the larvae belonged to an unknown species of Zatypota wasp.
"These wasps are very elegant and graceful," said Samantha Straus, co-author of the study and PhD student at the Zoology Department of OBC.
"But then they do the most brutal thing."
A female wasp first lays an egg on the spider's abdomen that hatches and begins to feed on the spider's blood-like haemolymph as it grows and slowly takes on the body of its host.
Then, the spider leaves its colony to create a cocoon for the larva – before waiting to be completely devoured by the young wasp who then enters the protective cocoon and comes out fully adult 10 days later.
"This behavior change is so difficult," said Straus.
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"The wasp completely diverts the spider's behavior and brain and makes it do something it would never do, like leaving its nest and turning on a completely different structure.
"It's very dangerous for these little spiders."
It's unclear how the wasps do this, but scientists think that this can be caused by an injection of hormones, which gives the spider the feeling of being in a different life phase and to dissociate themselves from the colony.
"We think wasps are targeting these social spiders because they provide a large host colony and a stable food source," Straus said.
"We also found that the larger the spider colony, the more likely it was that these wasps would target it."
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