News Animals

A caterpillar outwits corn defenses by gorging on fattening ‘junk’ food

The crop plants recruit zombie-maker wasps, but one pest has a desperate work-around

wasp and leafworm

DESPERATE BATTLE  Eating disgusting leaves may save an Egyptian cotton leafworm (right) from the zombie-making Microplitis rufiventris wasp that a corn plant lured in with odors.

Matthias Held/University of Neuchâtel

By Susan Milius

- More than 2 years ago

Here’s the story of a caterpillar that foils gruesome violence orchestrated by corn.