Virus Turning Caterpillars Into 'Exploding Zombies'
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – Wildlife experts in England say they have found evidence that caterpillars are being turned into "exploding zombies" by a virus.
The Blackpool Gazette reports wildlife experts first spotted the zombie caterpillars at the top of bushes in Lancashire.
Experts say the caterpillar are being driven a microorganism, known as baculovirus, which sends them on a march to their deaths.
The baculovirus then reportedly bursts out of the corpse to seek new victims below.
"It's like a zombie horror film," Dr. Chris Miller of The Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester, and North Merseyside's mosslands said.
Miller reportedly found a pair of the caterpillars dead, but otherwise intact, while carrying out a butterfly survey on Winmarleigh Moss near Garstang.
Researchers say the baculovirus actually affects the way the 'zombie insects' respond to light, making them climb to higher and more dangerous places and then die.
