Unbelievable Tactics: How Flying Parasitic Worms Use Their Superpowers to Snatch Prey in Midair

Physics can be pretty wild at the tiny level. There’s this little worm called S. carpocapsae, known as one of the smallest and best jumpers on Earth. Recent research published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences looked into how these worms use static electricity to leap onto their aerial prey.

When this nematode spots a flying insect, it curls up and jumps up to 25 times its own length. That’s like a human leaping over a ten-story building! During this impressive jump, it can spin up to 1,000 times a second.

Victor Ortega-Jiménez, a biologist at UC Berkeley, said, “These nematodes are some of the smallest, best jumpers. Big animals often steal the spotlight, but tiny creatures have exciting secrets too.”

Ranjiangshang Ran, a postdoctoral researcher at Emory University, added, “We learned something interesting about how organisms adapt using physics.”

Static electricity is all around us. It builds up when two surfaces rub together, leading to quick discharges. Previous research showed that many creatures utilize this electricity for survival. For instance, ticks use static electricity from animal fur to get on board, while spiders use it to trap insects in their webs. This study explored how nematodes harness this power.

Research showed that fruit flies, common targets for the nematodes, generate hundreds of volts just by flapping their wings. To measure the voltage, researchers attached tiny wires to the flies. They created the right conditions for the worms using moistened paper and a gentle puff of air to encourage their leaps. Some trials even used a mini wind tunnel to mimic natural surroundings.

High-speed cameras recorded the jumps at 10,000 frames per second, allowing scientists to analyze the jumps in detail. They found that when a fruit fly produced electricity, it caused the worm to create an opposite charge, increasing its chances of landing successfully. Without this electrostatic boost, only about one in 19 jumps hit the target.

There’s a risk in all this jumping. It takes energy and puts the worms in danger of predators or drying out in the air. Ran noted, “It’s clear that these jumps wouldn’t make sense without electrostatics.”

However, things turn dark once the nematodes land. They enter the insect’s body through openings and release bacteria that usually kill the host within two days. The worms feed on the bacteria and the dead insect, laying their eggs in the cadaver.

This cycle is chilling but demonstrates the fascinating blend of biology and physics at work. As more discoveries like this emerge, the microscopic world continues to surprise us!

Source link

electricity,entomology,microscopic,Parasites,Worms