New study finds plants have the power to turn caterpillars into cannibals

(Image credit: iStock)

published 10 July 2017

Plants have a sneaky and sadistic trick to prevent caterpillars from munching on their leaves, a new study published Monday in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution revealed. Researchers have discovered that plants secrete a chemical that makes them taste less delicious, leaving herbivorous caterpillars with the tough choice of eating less appealing foliage — or each other.

Caterpillars sometimes choose cannibalism. "When the chips are down, eating another caterpillar may not be a bad decision, [and] it turns out that the chips can be down if you find yourself on a plant that is heavily defended," said John Orrock, a co-author of the research.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

After 52 hours, about 7 percent of caterpillars were cannibalised on leaves sprayed with either no methyl jasmonate or the lowest concentration, while around 16 percent of caterpillars had been eaten on leaves sprayed with either of the more concentrated methyl jasmonate sprays.Most revealing was that more than five times as much plant matter was left on plants sprayed with the highest concentration of methyl jasmonate compared to those sprayed only with detergent — the latter were almost completely stripped of leaves. [The Guardian]

Explore More

Subscribe to The Week

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox