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Article: Worm drives grasshopper to suicide.(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- Current Science, a Weekly Reader publication
- Article date:
- November 18, 2005
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MONTPELLIER, France--In a bizarre variation of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, tiny worms have been observed invading the bodies of grasshoppers and turning them into suicidal zombies.
Scientists at the French National Center for Scientific Research made the discovery at a local swimming pool. During the summer, as many as 100 grasshoppers plunged into the pool each night and drowned.
The scientists determined that the hoppers had been driven to the pool by worms, called hairworms, that had entered their bodies. Hairworms are parasites, organisms that live in or on another species and benefit at ...