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Scientists Create Zombie Cockroaches

Posted by Zonk on from the almost-as-good-as-'them' dept.

Reservoir Hill writes "Zombie insects might sound like a B-movie plot device (quicktime video) but to the emerald cockroach wasp (Ampulex compressa), they're a tried and tested way to provide food for their hungry larvae. The wasp relies on cockroaches for its grisly life cycle but unlike many venomous predators, which paralyze their victims before eating them, the wasp's sting leaves the cockroach able to walk, but unable to initiate its own movement. Researchers have discovered that the wasps sting the cockroaches once to subdue them, then administer another, more precise sting right into their victim's brain. The venom works to block a neurotransmitter called octopamine with a similar action to dopamine, which is involved in preparations to execute complex behaviors such as walking. Then the wasp grabs the cockroach's antenna and leads it back to the nest 'like a dog on a leash', says one researcher. The team found that they could restore spontaneous walking behavior in stung cockroaches by giving them a compound that reactivates octopamine receptors in the insects' central nervous system. Researchers were also able to create their own zombies by injecting unstung cockroaches with a compound that blocks the receptors producing a similar effect to that of the venom."

48 of 243 comments (clear)

  1. Credit where credit is due... by bruins01 · · Score: 5, Funny

    The title should read: Emerald Cockroach Wasps Create Zombie Cockroaches, Scientists Notice

    1. Re:Credit where credit is due... by jacquesm · · Score: 2, Insightful

      as if humans would ever take the credit for things found in nature...

      --
      MP3 Search Engine
    2. Re:Credit where credit is due... by Plutonite · · Score: 5, Insightful

      This is the most awesome thing I've read in some time. In highly complex behaviors like these, I often wonder how the hell the evolutionary development [of the wasp] proceeded in order for the organism to deal with its prey like that. Not just one carefully administered sting, but two, then drags it home as if it knows what it just did. Hot damn.

    3. Re:Credit where credit is due... by FredDC · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The smallest creatures on this planet offer some of the most interesting behavioral patterns to study. I've always been fascinated with bees, ants, ... The solutions that nature has come up with for what appear to be impossible tasks are simply astounding!

      --
      09 f9 11 02 9d 74 e3 5b d8 41 56 c5 63
    4. Re:Credit where credit is due... by StrawberryFrog · · Score: 4, Informative

      Almost, it should be: "Emerald Cockroach Wasps Create Zombie Cockroaches, Scientists Imitate".

      From the blurb above:
      Researchers were also able to create their own zombies by injecting unstung cockroaches with a compound

      --

      My Karma: ran over your Dogma
      StrawberryFrog

    5. Re:Credit where credit is due... by ozmanjusri · · Score: 2, Funny
      I've always been fascinated with bees, ants

      Hawk moth pupae?

      --
      "I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
    6. Re:Credit where credit is due... by stranger_to_himself · · Score: 5, Informative

      For more insect related awesomeness the BBC made Life in the Undergrowth a documentary series presented by David Attenborough. There's some really incredible stuff in there. Wasps especially seem to have evolved lots of these rather sinister behaviours.

    7. Re:Credit where credit is due... by DerWulf · · Score: 4, Interesting

      It is highly complex but if you watch the video it becomes appearant that any form of sedation would have been an evolutionary advantage so the path could have been strength (wrestle the cockroach 'till it dies) > sedation > mind control. Once reduced to simple steps such complex behaviour is still awesome but less mind-boggling :-D

      --

      ___
      No power in the 'verse can stop me
    8. Re:Credit where credit is due... by Opportunist · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Right, they usually blame some deity for it.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    9. Re:Credit where credit is due... by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 5, Interesting
      A simpler form of this behavior was observed by Charles Darwin. Wasps laying eggs on live caterpillars which were eaten alive by wasp larvae! That convinced Darwin that no moral, just, fair God would design such a system. It was one of his motivations in seeking natural explanations for behavior of animals. Darwin wanted to plug the hole, "I am bad because God designed me to be bad and sinful" defense for the sinners. Because if Paley's watchmaker God was true, then every immoral behavior is a designed behavior, specifically created by God. It is ironic that present day fundies paint Darwin in the darkest hue.

      The evolution is easily explained. Wasps sting and kill cockroaches and lay an egg on the dead roach to provide ready food for their larvae. Some wasps had less potent venom, strong enough to paralyze but taking longer to kill. These roaches would stay alive longer and provide better, less rotten bodies for the larvae. Now you can see the selection mechanism, give it a few million years and a billion generations, you can see behavior that is incredible.

      --
      sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
    10. Re:Credit where credit is due... by leonardluen · · Score: 5, Funny

      well I, for one, welcome our new mind-controlling wasp overlords! how do we know the wasp didn't just make you type that?

      hey...ow!

      i also welcome our wasp overlords!
    11. Re:Credit where credit is due... by E++99 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The evolution is easily explained. Wasps sting and kill cockroaches and lay an egg on the dead roach to provide ready food for their larvae. Some wasps had less potent venom, strong enough to paralyze but taking longer to kill. These roaches would stay alive longer and provide better, less rotten bodies for the larvae. Now you can see the selection mechanism, give it a few million years and a billion generations, you can see behavior that is incredible.


      Perhaps I'm missing something. How can a DNA mutation make the wasp know how to locate the brain and lodge the stinger directly into it? When this change happened, it would have presumably killed the roach if the venom wasn't already a dopamine analogue rather than a toxin. If the roaches were killed after this change, the venom couldn't have been changed by successive steps into a dopamine, as a small change from dead is still dead. If the venom was already a dopamine analogue before the wasp learned to inject into the brain, then how? Dopamine, at least in humans, can't cross the blood-brain barrier, so would only be effective if injected into the brain.
    12. Re:Credit where credit is due... by E++99 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Of maybe just, "Scientists Observed Mimicking Behavior of Emerald Cockroach Wasps."

    13. Re:Credit where credit is due... by gripen40k · · Score: 2, Interesting

      One of the most amazing adaptations that I have seen in nature come from Japanese honey bees and their ability to thwart attacks from hornets. Check out this, guarantee you will be amazed :).

      --
      Har?
    14. Re:Credit where credit is due... by kalirion · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It's that mind control step that seems the biggest leap. Are you saying that a single random mutation (or sequence of mutations on the same individual wasp) just happened to give the wasp the right venom for mind control and the instinct to sting a second time and attempt to lead the beast home for dinner? How do you subdivide that into valid evolutionary steps?

    15. Re:Credit where credit is due... by oni · · Score: 2, Insightful

      How can a DNA mutation make the wasp know how to locate the brain and lodge the stinger directly into it?

      A common tactic among people who don't believe evolution, is to use phrases like "DNA mutation" as if to imply that there was no brain locating behavior, and then a single mutation happens and (like magic) a fully-formed brain locating behavior exists. As if this one wasp named Neo was born and he was their savior. That's a straw man. You're arguing against something that no evolutionary scientist claims.

      What scientists do say is that there is variability in every generation. Wasps don't just sting at random. In their tiny brain, they have the ability to make choices, and they prefer some things over others. Think of it this way: Your favorite flavor of ice cream is in part an inherited trait. If your mom and dad both liked strawberry, then you are more likely to prefer strawberry. There is variability in every generation, so there's a chance you like vanilla. It's not accurate to say, "omfg you have a mutation that makes you like vanilla!" In fact, it's disingenuous to say it that way. It's a straw man argument. It's just variability.

      A wasp likes to sting a roach in a certain place. In part, this is due to the fact that its parents had the same peference. Eons ago, the wasp's sting was powerful enough to kill a roach. Any location preference was ok - but, any wasps that preferred an area near the brain killed the roach more quickly, were more efficient (killed more roaches), and had less chance of getting injured as the roach thrashed around. As a result, those wasps left more offspring. Even today, there is variability. In every generation (millions of wasps) a few are born that prefer to sting the roach on its ass. Today, those wasps don't leave any offspring.

    16. Re:Credit where credit is due... by j_166 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      "No, the Bible shows that we have free will to bring joy to our Creator when we choose to worship him." Its not really much of a choice though if its "bring joy to me OR experience eternal suffering and damnation". How about this: you bring me a good donut (I'll leave it up to you to decide if the donut is good or not), OR I bash your fricking teeth in with a baseball bat. Which one would you choose? Remember, the choice is totally yours. Also, remember that the conditions is that its a *good* donut. But I'm not going to tell you what the definition of good is. Ok, well, maybe I'll tell somebody to tell you, but I'm also going to make the explanation completely counter-intuitive to your every day experience. Also, I'm going to tell other people to tell you a conflicting definition of a good donut in hundreds of completely logical and credible ways. Well, what is your choice?

  2. Eh? by fyngyrz · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Scientists create Zombie Cockroaches"

    Yes, and then we elect them. Wake me up when the system changes.

    --
    I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
    1. Re:Eh? by PietjeJantje · · Score: 5, Funny

      Ford Prefect, talking to Arthur Dent about an immense robot that came from a flying saucer (destroying a huge area including Harrods), and said "Take me to your Lizard.":

      "It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see ..."

      "You mean, it comes from a world of lizards?"

      "No," said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and
      coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee forced
      down him, "nothing so simple. Nothing anything like so
      straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders
      are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the
      people."

      "Odd," said Arthur, "I thought you said it was a democracy."

      "I did," said Ford. "It is."

      "So," said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse,
      "why don't people get rid of the lizards?"

      "It honestly doesn't occur to them," said Ford. "They've all got
      the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government
      they've voted in more or less approximates to the government they
      want."

      "You mean they actually vote for the lizards?"

      "Oh yes," said Ford with a shrug, "of course."

      "But," said Arthur, going for the big one again, "why?"

      "Because if they didn't vote for a lizard," said Ford, "the wrong
      lizard might get in. Got any gin?"

  3. Deja Vu by SetupWeasel · · Score: 5, Informative

    I can't believe I remembered this.

  4. A new degree of Slashdotting... by AlXtreme · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Linking a 40MB quicktime movie from Slashdot somehow doesn't seem like a very smart idea...

    For the wasp this looks like a very useful move. Why haul your food when it can walk for you?

    --
    This sig is intentionally left blank
  5. Re:Implications? by slyn · · Score: 3, Funny

    I for one, welcome our new nuclear blast surviving Zombie Cockroaches.

    I hear those are what "I am Legend" is about.

  6. Re:First thing I thought of was: by Misanthrope · · Score: 4, Funny

    Don't blame me I voted for zombie Lincoln.

  7. Actually that's how the political system works too by DaedalusHKX · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Why rob people (which is a risky business when robbing men and women) when they can raise people as zombies, so they bravely volunteer themselves into servitude via taxation and voting for fixed choices. Top that off with voluntarily putting their young through zombification processes known as "free public schooling" (which isn't free but the zombies don't know that, so don't tell'em.)

    --
    " What luck for rulers that men do not think" - Adolf Hitler
  8. slashdotters arrested by jacquesm · · Score: 4, Funny

    In other news, large hordes of nerds are being arrested all over the planet while injecting nubile females with what appears to be insect venom. Natalie Portman in intensive care after a severe allergic reaction.

    --
    MP3 Search Engine
  9. Re:Implications? by SetupWeasel · · Score: 5, Funny

    Will Smith is not a zombie cockroach. He is a Scientologist. I may be splitting hairs here, but there is a difference.

  10. Zombies? by killmofasta · · Score: 2, Interesting

    ok. Let me see? Which are the Zombie Cockroaches, and which are the scientists? Is there are demonstrateable diffrence? Are they both vying for press? Didn't Mabel, the cow, see little diffrence betweem the Pigs and the Humans in the end of "Animal Farm"

    Must favor "unreasonably huge subsidies to the Zombie Cockroaches planet."

    With Hunger, Global Warming and catostrophic ozone loss affecting the lives of billions, dont you think the scientests/Zombie Cockroaches have something better to do? Hmmm?

    1. Re:Zombies? by StuckInSyrup · · Score: 2, Informative

      With Hunger, Global Warming and catostrophic ozone loss affecting the lives of billions, dont you think the scientests/Zombie Cockroaches have something better to do? Hmmm? Oh, I love comments like this.
      "You are studying cockroaches, hm? Interesting. But MILLIONS are starving, are you going to feed them with cockroaches? Forget about your work, do something, HUMAN LIVES are on stake" ...and so on.
      You know, there is this thing called fundamental research. You never know when data like this will be useful.
      --
      Ni.
  11. That is blatant racism by SmallFurryCreature · · Score: 2, Insightful

    When jocks inject large amounts of toxic liqued into women to get them to loose control over their bodies, that is just guys being guys, but when nerds do it "CALL THE COPS". For the humor impaired, alcohol is far easier to obtain in large doses then insect venom

    I say enough is enough, we have to strike back. Revenge of the nerds!

    Mmm, sounds like a good title for a movie, what is the number for hollywood?

    --

    MMO Quests are like orgasms:

    You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.

    1. Re:That is blatant racism by DrWho520 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Loose the italics next time. I know it is hard to resist, but explaining a joke just makes it !funny.

      --
      The cancel button is your friend. Do not hesitate to use it.
    2. Re:That is blatant racism by SwordsmanLuke · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Lose the "o" next time.

      Though, to be fair, you might have been asking the GP to unleash further italics on the unsuspecting world, as in "Loose the dogs of war."

      --
      Any plan which depends on a fundamental change in human behavior is doomed from the start.
  12. So many freaky parasites so little vomit left... by F34nor · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This one freaks the shit out of me for some reason. http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=53

  13. Well, I for one by 427_ci_505 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Well, I for one am scared shitless of our new overlords.

  14. Re:Actually that's how the political system works by ZombieRoboNinja · · Score: 2, Funny

    Nicely crafted, but couldn't you have worked "sheeple" in there somewhere?

  15. Dupe by sentientbrendan · · Score: 3, Informative

    http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/02/04/1649211

    I wish they'd just google for the old title... that would catch most of these dupes.

  16. Human Zombies by Miratus · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This reminds me of a bit of research done by the psychofarmacology department of the University of Rotterdam in the late eighties. They set out to discover if there was any substance to the reports from aid-workers and missionaries in Africa that 'zombies' were for real. Several well-documented cases existed, involving 'dead' individuals returning to their old villages, months or years after their burial, with only hazy memories of what happenend during their time away. With some help from anthropologists it was discovered that the 'zombies' were in fact poisoned with a complex witch-doctor mix of herbs and toxins, the only really important ingredient of which was a powerful neurotoxin of animal origin, which inhibited active thought and the forming of memories. The individual who was doused in this contact-poison would fall into a death-like coma soon afterwards. Then it was simply a matter of digging the body up fast and whacking it over the head a few times to get the person to wake up. If that failed (hitting the proper dosage is a bitch), the grave could be closed, no one the wiser. The 'lucky' ones woke up as addled 'zombies', with no will of their own and able to hear and obey simple instructions and could be sold as slaves. The toxin was recreated by science (without the unnecessary extra ingredients) and proved quite powerful when tested on lab-rats. The neurotoxin blocked key neural pathways, but turned out to be easily 'washed away' by a sufficiently large dose of Na+ ions, such as when the victim ingested common table-salt. Having proved that it there was a scientific truth to the zombie-myth, but finding no easy synthesis of the neurotoxin nor any medical use, the research group moved on. I was given their report while in high-school by one member of the team, who thought it was funny that I was VERY interested in this voodoo-zombie story that she had mentioned to me. I should go look up that report or contact her again for further details, but perhaps someone who is more skilled in research and farmacology can just pull this out of a database for all of us?

    1. Re:Human Zombies by Magada · · Score: 3, Informative

      They got the story just a wee bit wrong, your scientist friends did. Yes, the main ingredient for "zombification" is a venom - pufferfish venom or some other analogous neurotoxin) for the paralysis bit and clinical depression as an added bonus, but the traditional cocktails which have been studied also contain a lysergine and some THC to complete "operation mindfuck", plus additional bits of stuff that inhibit the autonomous nervous system and slow down metabolic processes - sometimes in non-obvious ways. This is something that's been in development since the stone age began. If some obscure herb is in there, it's in there for a reason.

      Btw, if you ever meet a zombie, make her a nice cup of St John's wort tea.

      --
      Something bad is coming when people are suddenly anxious to tell the truth.
  17. Re:Implications? by vegiVamp · · Score: 2, Funny


    You might do better to welcome your new emerald wasp overlords. If you're able to do so, that is.

    --
    What a depressingly stupid machine.
  18. Brains? by FranklinDelanoBluth · · Score: 4, Funny

    But do they eat brains? I don't think so. So, technically they're not zombies.

  19. Re:Implications? by rucs_hack · · Score: 2, Funny

    Well, this buggers my zombie plan

  20. Zombie ants are cooler by jordyhoyt · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If you find this amazing, check out the wikipedia article on these amazing parasites!

  21. Good by ajs318 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    This should serve once and for all to dispel the myth of a benevolent creator.

    --
    Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
    1. Re:Good by One+Childish+N00b · · Score: 4, Insightful

      This should serve once and for all to dispel the myth of a benevolent creator.

      Alright, you've posted with your real account, which has no history of trolling, so either this is a genuine statement or you forgot to hit 'Post Anonymously'.

      I have to ask, at the risk of being modded troll myself... why?

      People have been doing worse things than this to one another for centuries, usually in the name of one God or another, and you are taking the existence of a zombie cockroach as your final proof of a Godless universe? Is there a justification here I'm just not seeing?

      --
      Dealing with lawyers would be a lot less tedious if they all looked like Casey Novak.
  22. How is this for deja vu by Daath · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I remembered this, believe it or not. Almost 6 years to the day ;P Well, who's counting ;P

    --
    Any technology distinguishable from magic, is insufficiently advanced.
  23. Re:corepirate nazis create zombi population by PonyHome · · Score: 2, Informative

    Nice one! Okay, two points for demonstrating that IS possible for human brains to become infected, to do the bidding of others, and reprogrammed to mindlessly spread that infection as far and wide as possible. It would have been fifty points but, y'know, spelling.

    And what is this constant harping on cockroach "brains?" Their so-called "brain" is a cluster of nerve cells that runs along the ventral midline of their thoracic segment. There's three clusters of it in the "head" segment, but that doesn't control locomotion. A cockroach doesn't even need its head, except for that starving to death thing. It would have been nice if the article had been a bit more clear on where this precise injection occurs. In the head? That might blind them, but probably wouldn't rob them of "free will" (as much as a cockroach can be said to have free will). Even more impressive might be that the wasp knows in which segment of the neural ganglia to inject them in order to control their actions.

  24. Re:Actually that's how the political system works by ModMeFlamebait · · Score: 2, Funny

    Why rob people (...) when they can raise people as zombies,
    And then you can Rob Zombie :)
    --
    Pavlov. Does this name ring a bell?
  25. Oh Thank God by Kadmium · · Score: 4, Funny

    I read the title as "Scientologists create zombie cockroaches" and actually caught myself thinking, "Yeah, they've been working up to this for a while now."

  26. Huge opportunity by longslash · · Score: 3, Funny

    Surely this opens up a whole new area of cockroach racing with wasp jockeys?