A downy killer wages chemical warfare
With deadly chemical strikes, a fungus takes out insects in powdery burst
By Beth Mole
It may look sweet and fuzzy. But make no mistake. It’s a cold, calculated murderer.
The assassin, a common fungus called Beauveria bassiana, slays with a vast arsenal of chemical weapons, leaving corpses in a fluffy white shroud (including the caterpillar above). And like any trained killer, it quickly moves on to the next victim. “If you’ve got six to eight legs, it is going to go after you,” says molecular biologist and biochemist Nemat Keyhani of the University of Florida in Gainesville. People and other vertebrates are generally safe, he says.