Death vines turn hornets into mummies

The specialized green silk penetrates into the place where wasps live, draining out the nutrients in the bee's body and turning it into dry flesh.

Smooth, glossy round blocks stick to the underside of the oak leaves, containing the dried remains of a wasp, killed by parasitic plants called green silk (Cassytha filiformis) , according to Live Science. The tiny circular block is a leaf deformity called the gallbladder, swelling tumors of leaf tissue and their development due to insects that are honeybee bees on oak trees.

The round bile is parasitic wasp parasitic on oak leaves, but becomes the parasitic target of green silk.(Photo: Live Science).

Store eggs and protect young babies inside the gallbladder. As a result, the growing young will be safe until the green silk appears and breaks into their home, according to a study published in the August 20 issue of Current Biology. When scientists opened the gallbladder tightly held by the thin orange vines, they found the mummy of the wasps inside. Vines penetrate into the gallbladder and drain the insect's nutrients, turning it into dry flesh.

Although experts have been studying hornets as honey on beech trees and green silk for more than a century, this is the first study to explore a network of two species. In the study, the team examined 2,000 gall bladder bees made by Belonocnema treatae in the 1,609km oak forests in Florida. Among them, 58% were attacked by green silk. This parasitic creeper seems to prefer large gallbladder. Gallbladder smaller than 3.5 mm in diameter is rarely parasitic.

'We found that the green silk attacked the gallbladder slightly larger than average. That means vines only attack large gallbladder or urge their gallbladder to grow larger, perhaps to attract more nutrients , ' said lead researcher Scott Egan, assistant professor of biology at the University. Rice, Houston, said.

Green silk penetrates through the outer wall of the gallbladder, using a section called the sucker to suck nutrients from inside. The team observed that the vines tighten many rounds just below the gallbladder and pierce the root into the original tissue.

The research team cut 51 bags of parasitic plow honey and found 23 gallbladder with dead mummies inside. The study provides the first evidence of a parasitic plant that attacks the structure created by insects in a way that harms insects.