We’ve read how plants communicate with each other by chemicals, and we’ve read about parasites that change the behavior of other animals, but this takes the cake. Tomato plants have shown the ability to protect themselves from caterpillars by inducing them to eat each other instead!
University of Wisconsin in Madison treated tomato plants with methyl jasmonate (MeJA), a chemical known to communicate a pest warning between plants. The tomatoes then geared up for an attack by changing their own chemistry.The researchers then allowed caterpillars of a common pest, the small mottled willow moth (Spodoptera exigua), to attack the crop. Eight days later, they…
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