IF YOU feel that commercialism has taken over your body this festive season, driving you to make costly and irrational decisions, then spare a thought for the cockroach, one of the humble heroes of Matt Simon鈥檚 foray into the world of real-life zombies.
These insects won鈥檛 succumb to overenthusiastic purchases (鈥淒o have another date 鈥� we鈥檝e got 17 boxes鈥�) or dread the error that makes junior鈥檚 chin tremble (鈥渋ts an XJ11ii, but I wanted an XJ13iv!鈥�). No, zombie cockroaches are driven by a more sinister force, that results in their untimely death, carrying the progeny of a parasitic wasp. The wasp injects the roach鈥檚 brain with a series of chemicals so finely tuned they subvert the very behavioural sequences roachkind uses for survival, tweaking them for the benefit of the wasp larvae, deep inside the hapless host.
This kind of mind control is also practised by species from fungi that infiltrate ants to toxoplasmosis parasites that make mice think cat pee smells great. To get those spores, eggs or larvae out and about, some will even try to stack the deck by altering the behaviour of a host to ensure the next generation ends up in a favourable spot.
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Simon captures the subtlety and complexity of this, managing to be witty, well-informed and awestruck at the same time. His journey from forest to lab details the tricks and false treats parasites hand out to dupe hosts and bend them to their will, with a gripping finale about human infestation and free will undermined. A cracking Christmas read.
Penguin
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淩eal zombies live!鈥�
