a thoughtful web.
Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking.   Login or Take a Tour!
comment by caio
caio  ·  4865 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Body Invaders : Parasitic Wasp Larvae
It seems no one yet knows. A hypothesis is that a couple of larvae stay behind and infect the host's brain while the others mature.

One or two of the parasites migrate to the ant's brain, where they encyst and are believed to affect the ant's behaviour. These so-called brainworms are not transmitted, and appear to be sacrificed to enable transmission of their kin. If the parasitoid larvae of the system described here also stay behind to manipulate the host and do not pupate later, this would represent a cost of host manipulation: some offspring are sacrificed for higher survival of their kin. This hypothesis needs further investigation. http://tinyurl.com/6ge45ga