THE trick by which a parasitic worm brainwashes its host into killing itself has been revealed.
The nematomorph hairworm (Spinochordodes tellinii) develops inside land-dwelling grasshoppers and crickets until the time comes for the worm to transform into an aquatic adult. At that point it somehow persuades the insect to jump into water, allowing the adult worm to swim away.
David Biron and his colleagues at the Institute for Development Research in Montpellier, France, have found the worms produce proteins that mimic some of the grasshoppers’ own (Proceedings of the Royal Society B, DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2005.3213). Some of the proteins affect neurotransmitter activity and response to gravity.…
