Think that zombies are just fiction? Not for caterpillars, it isn't: there's actually a virus that can turn healthy caterpillars into zombies.

The biology of the disease is quite fascinating as researchers found that all the virus had to do is modify a single gene in the caterpillar's genome to turn it into a zombie:

"When gypsy moth caterpillars are healthy and happy, they go up into the trees at night to feed on leaves, and then climb back down in the morning to hide [in bark crevices or soil] from predators during the day," said study co-author Kelli Hoover, an entomologist at Penn State University.

But caterpillars infected with a baculovirus—a type of virus that infects invertebrates—are driven to the treetops and reprogrammed to stay there until they meet a doom worthy of a horror film.

"When they are infected, as they get sicker they stay up in the trees and die up there," Hoover explained.

The virus "ends up using just about all of the caterpillar to make more virus, and there are other genes in the virus that then make the caterpillar melt. So it becomes a pool of millions of virus particles that end up dropping onto the foliage below where it can infect other moths that eat those leaves."

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Previously on Neatorama: Poison Turns Man Into a Real Zombie | Wasp Zombifies Roach

See also: NeatoShop's Zombie Store

Nature is one scary mama, that’s for sure! VideoSift has the clip you’ve got to see: Link [embedded YouTube]

This is the time of year when tent caterpillars make their presence known; emerging from eggs that have overwintered on tree branches, the caterpillars’ first task in the spring is to create a tent.  Most people don’t realize that these tents are quite elaborate solar energy stuctures that allow the caterpillars to optimize their body temperatures.

The tent of the eastern tent caterpillar is among the largest built by any tent caterpillar. The tents are constructed in the crotch of the host tree and are typically oriented so that the broadest face of the structure faces the southeast, taking advantage of the morning sun… The silk is laid down under slight tension and it eventually contracts, causing the newly spun layer of silk to separate from the previously spun layer…

Light has a great effect on the caterpillars while they are spinning and they always spin the majority of their silk on the most illuminated face of the tent. Indeed, if under experimental conditions the dominant light source is directed at the tent from below, the caterpillars will build their tent upside down…

Eastern tent caterpillars are among the earliest of caterpillars to appear in the spring. Because the early spring weather is often cold, the caterpillars rely on the heat of the sun to elevate their body temperatures to levels that allow them to digest their food… The tents act as miniature glass houses, trapping the heat of the morning sun and allowing the caterpillars to warm more quickly than they would if they remained outside the tent. Studies have shown that basking, aggregated caterpillars can achieve temperature excesses of as much as 44°C.

For a less sanguine view of tent caterpillars, see this rant at the Seattle Times.

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Nova Bickmore, 69, could not believe the sight when she visited her father’s grave.

She said: ‘There were thousand upon thousand of caterpillars and a silk web all over the trees, which had no leaves left.

‘Some of the caterpillars were hanging down from the trees and others were all over the floor.

‘It was a really ghostly scene.’  In their caterpillar stage, the bugs, known as web worms, weave leaves of trees together and eat them from their nests.

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(photo: Peter Lawson/ Eastnews Press Agency Ltd)

Some caterpillars drag their back ends along leaves to ward off intruders on their territory. Now it seems this "anal-scraping" – which creates warning vibrations – evolved from walking. It is the strongest evidence yet that communication signals can evolve from the exaggeration and repetition of routine behaviours.

Jayne Yack of Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, and colleagues compared the genes of more than 30 species of caterpillar. They found that scrapers tended to be species that have evolved more recently, and that they settle disputes with an intruder without fighting. Instead they wiggle their rear, causing oar-like appendages to scrape and drum against the leaf below.

Link (Photo: J. Yack/Carleton University in Ottawa)

They usually eat algae or lichen, and build silk cases — which one species even adorns with bird feathers — for shelter and camouflage. They spin silk drag lines to withstand the high pressure of fast floodwaters.

Unlike other amphibious creatures that can survive underwater on stored oxygen but must come back up for air, these caterpillars can spend several weeks without ever breaking the surface, according to the paper, which was published online on Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

It isn’t yet clear how the insects do it. Rubinoff and co-worker Patrick Schmitz of the University of Hawaii did not find any water-blocking stopper over the caterpillars’ tracheae or evidence of gills. The animals drowned quickly when kept in standing water, so they seem to need the higher levels of oxygen present in running water, and probably absorb it directly through pores in their body, the scientists said.

Link -via Digg

C is for this crazy mad cow-terpillar cupcake cake.

This cake was inspired by Mad Cow Giant Microbe plushy available from the Neatorama Shop. Originally the kids and I were going to make a regular caterpillar cake, but my daughter kind of came up with this idea instead. She said, "Let’s make a mad cow-terpillar cake." I admit we aren’t the best cake decorators, but before you submit us to Cake Wrecks please consider the fact that this was created by a 3 1/2 year old and 2 year old with the aid of someone a wee bit older, but with the decorating skills of a 3 year old.

In case you are wondering we used store bought cake mix and frosting (chocolate and vanilla). It’s 4 cupcakes long. The eyes are dried cranberries with little candy pearls in the center. We sprinkled a few white crystals on top, because some of us like sparkly stuff.

This cake is in honor of Daddy who studied mad cow in graduate school.

There’s a caterpillar in this photograph taken in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Can you see it? Better yet, can you identify it? From Flickr user WohinAuswandern. Link -via TYWKIWDBI

Geoff Read, head of reptiles and inverterbrae at Marwell Wildlife, near Winchester, Hants, said the behaviour was perculiar to sawfly larvae.

He said: “It is a defence mechanism. If you go too near them they rear up like this to try and scare off predators.

“It is only this family of caterpillars that do this – it’s incredible to see.”

Link -via Arbroath

(image credit: Desmond Cannon)

This green alien is a native of the Philippines and seems to have taken the fake eye spots to an extreme, making its “face” quite large and scary. Normally, a caterpillar’s face is much smaller and not on the second abdominal segment.

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(image credit: Flickr user Thrillseekr)

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by envirochristian.

Every week, Christie Lynn of Observation of a Nerd blog features a post about a hair raising parasite worthy of a science fiction (or perhaps better yet, horror) movie.

This particular one is about a caterpillar being eaten from inside after being infected with a parasitic wasp; make sure to see all of the other entries. And a little warning: it’s not for the faint of heart.

Cotesia glomerata, like many other parasitic wasps, targets caterpillars to host its hungry little wasps-to-be. When it finds a suitable host, it injects its eggs directly into the body cavity of the unfortunate butterfly larvae by stabbing its egg-laying, needle-like appendage called an “ovipositor” directly through the catterpillar’s skin. Inside the host, the eggs hatch and begin feeding on the inner organs to become fully grown.

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From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Christophe.

Caterpillars of the Great Peacock Moth (Saturnia pyri) are making quite a buzz. A recent study has shown that these giant silkmoth caterpillars are advertising acoustically that they are unpallatable and warn of an upcoming defense strategy.

When disturbed by a would be attacker the caterpillars stridulate by rubbing their mouth parts together, creating broadband chirps spanning from 3.7-55.1 kHz. While it is still unclear who exactly they are advertising to, a predator would be well advised to stay away from their sharp, chemical exuding bristles.

Though is not the first example of sound production in caterpillars it is a novel mechanism, paving the way for future research. (Photo: V. Bura)

Saturnia pyri chirp before or while they ooze foul-smelling droplets from their bristles. So the chirps might be a warning to attackers that there’s some serious resistance on the way, Yack and her colleagues propose online and in an upcoming Naturwissenschaften.

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From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by afleming.

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