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Heading:
This creepy new wasp species turns social spiders into zombie slaves
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Summary:
In
the rainforest of Ecuador, some kind of zombie apocalypse is taking
place. Spiders of the same specie (Anelosimus eximius), are behaving
in an unusual way. Although these spiders don’t leave their colony
as they live in groups, they are leaving them on their own and
isolating themselves in a silk cocoon.
These
quirky behavior
is because a new type of parasitoid wasps (belonging to the Zatypota
genus). These wasps need to parasite
another being in order to complete their life cycle. The
parasite
process begins with the adult wasps laying an egg in the spider’s
abdomen. Then, it hatches, and starts to feed on the spider’s blood
to fatten itself and eventually it takes over the spider’s body.
Before the spider dies, it isolates itself in a silk cocoon.
After
11 days isolated in the cocoon, a fully formed wasp emerges from it,
ready to restart its life-cycle.
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Link or reference:
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Publication date:
November
28th
2018
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Scientific field:
Animal
world
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Glossary:
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Anelosimus eximus: a specie of spiders that live in colonies with its
other same-specie mates.
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Zatypota species: a type of parasitoid wasps that need to parasite
another being to complete its life-cycle.
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Text commentary:
I
chose to comment this new because it makes me feel interested and
intrigued about how unknown remains the wild life to us. The
abilities of the animals we don’t even know they have are
fascinating, just as fascinating as how the parasite
being function. As they need another being as they actually cannot
live by themselves, not until the fully develop their bodies.
In
my opinion, as there are a lot more parasite
type of beings, the study focused on this specie of wasps because
they do really control its host body. They control its physical and
mental being as they are able to confront the host’s will.
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