Not Enough Males ? Monoamines Change Everything !

Being a mother can be very hard work, and finding enough food to feed your young is risky and time-consuming. But some parasitoid species give their young the best start in life by having an energy-rich meal ready and waiting when they emerge from the egg. The catch is that this very nutritious breakfast is the body of a hapless victim, its muscles paralysed by the mother’s venom. However, not all wasp mothers use the same paralytic approach to ensure her brood’s future: Ampulex compressa uses a sophisticated alternative mechanism; she catches and manipulates her victims. Instead of disrupting the signals between the victim’s motor neurons and muscles to paralyse them, A. compressa’s venom alters the victim’s behaviour by targeting its stings to specific parts of the cockroach prey’s nervous system, leaving it at the wasp’s mercy. In a review published in the Journal of Comparative Physiology, Frederic Libersat describes his work on this intriguing system.