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Fatal Attraction
10 June 2013

Fatal Attraction

It’s a biological booby trap. Female A. stephensi mosquitos are standing over H. subflexa caterpillars (alive on the left, and dead on the right). But it’s not the caterpillar itself that’s so attractive to the mosquitos, rather what’s inside them – a deadly, yet irresistible, fungus. A minute’s contact with the fungal carriers is all it takes to infect and kill the mosquitos. In the future, the fatal fungus (B. Bassiana, seen as the white ‘fur’ sporulating out from the caterpillar cadavers on the right) may be used as a biopesticide, coated onto the surfaces of walls and nests, diverting mosquitos away from homes or schools, and infecting malaria carriers like A. stephensi before they can transmit their own deadly disease.

Written by John Ankers

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BPoD stands for Biomedical Picture of the Day. Managed by the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences until Jul 2023, it is now run independently by a dedicated team of scientists and writers. The website aims to engage everyone, young and old, in the wonders of biology, and its influence on medicine. The ever-growing archive of more than 4000 research images documents over a decade of progress. Explore the collection and see what you discover. Images are kindly provided for inclusion on this website through the generosity of scientists across the globe.

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