Newly discovered wasp turns social spiders into zombies

Newly discovered wasp turns social spiders into zombies

5 years ago
Anonymous $L9wC17otzH

https://phys.org/news/2018-11-newly-wasp-social-spiders-zombies.html

"Wasps manipulating the behaviour of spiders has been observed before, but not at a level as complex as this," said Philippe Fernandez-Fournier, lead author of the study and former master's student at UBC's department of zoology. "Not only is this wasp targeting a social species of spider but it's making it leave its colony, which it rarely does."

Fernandez-Fournier was in Ecuador studying different kinds of parasites that live in the nests of Anelosimus eximius spiders, one of only about 25 species of "social" spiders worldwide. They are notable for living together in large colonies, cooperating on prey capture, sharing parental duties and rarely straying from their basket-shaped nests.