An interesting report, but it seems to me that there are some
problems. For instance, this wording at the included link does not reflect
my understanding of insect metamorphosis:
"... Over the next couple of weeks, the egg hatches and the larva migrates
to the ant’s head. The ant behaves normally for another two weeks as the
larva matures into a pupa, at which point the pupa starts consuming the
brain tissue of the ant...."
The pupa as an active feeding stage?
Other parts of the report seem unnecessarily teleological and to draw
unwarranted conclusion:
"... researchers discovered that ants continued about their routines for
approximately 8-10 hours during the final larval stage, despite the lack of
brain tissue. In other words, the parasitoid fly pupa controlled the ant in
a zombie-like fashion to avoid arousing suspicion from other ants..."
Yikes! Couldn't it be that the particular ant behaviours observed did not
depend of the part of the brain that the parasitoid had destroyed?
Martin M. Meiss
2010/4/1 Katie Kline <[email protected]>
> It's been roughly 80 years since the red imported fire ant (Solenopsis
> invicta) arrived from South America to Mobile, Alabama in soil used as
> ballast to weigh down boats. Needless to say, fire ants have adapted well in
> southern states like Texas, Louisiana and Florida, disrupting native
> wildlife and plants and causing problems for people ranging from shorting
> out street lights to stinging limbs.
>
> But in the late 1990s and early 2000s, scientists brought over several
> strains of parasitoid flies from Argentina in an attempt to naturally
> eradicate the fire ants. A scientist recently found that one particular fly
> strain may be able to completely wipe out fire ants in northern Florida.
>
> Read more and comment at
> http://www.esa.org/esablog/research/fire-ant-decapitating-flies-take-hold-in-florida-one-head-at-a-time/
> .
>
