If you puncture the ovary of a wasp called Microplitis demolitor, viruses squirt out in vast quantities, shimmering like iridescent blue toothpaste. 'It's very beautiful, and just amazing that there's so much virus made in there,' says Gaelen Burke, an entomologist at the University of Georgia.
The virus particles are injected into the caterpillar through the wasp's stinger, along with the wasp's own eggs. The viruses then dump their contents into the caterpillar's cells, delivering genes that are unlike those in a normal virus, suppressing the caterpillar's immune system and controlling its development.
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