Scienceblogtwo

Entomophthora muscae has a remarkable survival strategy that may make you put off your next meal: it infects female houseflies and causes them to become "zombified" before inducing necrophilia in male houseflies with enticing chemical signals. The fungus can transfer to the male fly and, in principle, have a better chance of further spread by inducing these male flies to mate with zombified females. The unfortunate male fly is then similarly captured by E. muscae. Sesquiterpenes, or chemical signals, which are produced in the female corpse and released as a tempting signal, are essential to the process. According to the researchers' trials, the longer a corpse has been dead, the more desirable it seems to the guys. According to evolutionary biologist Henrik H. De Fine Licht of the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, "the chemical signals operate as pheromones that bewitch male flies and generate an extraordinary urge for them to mate with deceased female carcasses....