Behold the glorious majesty of Nature !
Take, for instance, the parasitoid wasp Glyptapanteles, which lays its eggs in the body of caterpillars. When the eggs hatch, the wasp larvae feed on the host caterpillar's bodily fluids before eating their way out and forming a cocoon nearby.
But the caterpillar, though damaged by this process, is still alive and remains in position as a sort of zombie bouncer that aggressively knocks away beetles that come near to – and might prey on – the cocoons. Researchers studying this have found that, with a zombie caterpillar guard in place, the number of predators approaching the cocoons can be halved – an obvious advantage for survival.
Another bizarre example can be found in the Japanese tree frogs of South Korea. In March 2016, Bruce Waldman at Seoul National University and his student, Deuknam An, published evidence for an extraordinary behavioural manipulation caused by a pathogenic fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis.
The fungus is a well-known threat to many frog species, but Japanese tree frogs in Asia do not seem to be dying off so suddenly when a population is infected. When Waldman and An listened to the mating calls of 42 male tree frogs, they realised that the nine that were infected with Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis had calls that were faster and longer – making them more attractive to potential mates.
Matt Fisher says the amphibians may essentially have been turned into "sex zombies", whose subsequent interactions with mates only increase the likelihood of the fungus spreading further. "It's not a proven hypothesis by any means, but the data is fairly strong," he says.
Perhaps one of the most surprising examples of a real-life zombie in nature is not in animals whose behaviour goes awry – but in plants that are transformed into mutant versions of themselves. Hagenhout and her team discovered that the bacteria were secreting proteins that change molecular processes inside the plants. That is, they alter transcription factors: the plant's own proteins that control gene expression and help differentiate different parts of the organism, for example a leaf versus a flower versus a stem.
Flowers on the plant begin to morph into green flowers, essentially becoming leaves. The infection makes them more attractive to the insects that will pick up the bacteria and carry them to new plant hosts. The zombie plants are a particularly interesting example because the plant itself does not ultimately die as a result of the infection. It has simply been transformed into a useful vehicle for furthering contagion.
http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20170313-real-life-zombies-that-are-stranger-than-fiction
Mmmm, biology....
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