Caterpillars die rather than switch
By Susan Milius
Caterpillars die rather than switch
Researchers have found a compound in potatoes and tomatoes that turns tobacco hornworm caterpillars into addicts.
In the lab, at least a third of hornworms become so addicted to the compound, indioside D, that they starve rather than switch to food without it, reports Marta del Campo, now of Binghamton University in New York. In the May 10 Nature, she and her colleagues at Cornell University say the substance hooks caterpillars by changing the sensitivity of chemoreceptors near the worms’ mouths.