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How Parasites Alter the Behavior of their Insect Hosts

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Abstract

An alien creature slithers into the body of its victim and with machiavellian cunning manipulates its behavior. This disturbing vision has been the premise for more than one successful horror film. As with many human fantasies, this one has a basis in biological fact: some parasites do alter their hosts’ behavior (see Moore and Gotelli, 1990; Horton and Moore, 1993; Moore, 1993, 1995). What is less clear is how they do it.

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Adamo, S.A. (1997). How Parasites Alter the Behavior of their Insect Hosts. In: Beckage, N.E. (eds) Parasites and Pathogens. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-5983-2_12

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