ZOMBIE NEUROSCIENCE
| don't know if cockroaches dream, but | imagine if they do,
jewel wasps feature prominently in their nightmares. These
small, solitary tropical wasps are of little concern to us
humans; after all, they don't manipulate our minds so that
they can serve us up as willing, living meals to their
newborns, as they do to unsuspecting cockroaches. The
story is simple, if grotesque: the female wasp controls the
minds of the cockroaches she feeds to her offspring, taking
away their sense of fear or will to escape their fate. What
turns a once healthy cockroach into a mindless zombie it's
venom. Not just any venom, either: a specific venom that
acts like a drug, targeting the cockroach's brain.
(Adaptado de Christie Wilcox, Zombie Neuroscience. Scientific
American, New York, v. 315, n. 2, p. 70-73, 2016.)
De acordo com o autor,
a) certas baratas conseguem escapar de ataques de
vespas comportando-se como zumbis.
b) baratas são capazes de ações predatórias que mal
podemos imaginar.
Cc) vespas fêmeas de uma certa espécie podem controlar
a mente das baratas.
d) uma barata pode inocular um veneno que transforma
uma outra barata em um zumbi.