Tomato Plants Change Attackers Into Cannibals
Nathaniel Scharping, Discover
It's a twist of fate that wouldn't feel out of place in a horror movie: A platoon of caterpillars, young and hungry, descend on a defenseless tomato plant to feast, but as they begin to eat something goes terribly wrong. The leaves no longer satisfy, and they turn on each other in a cannibalistic frenzy feeding wildly until just one, sated and content, remains.You can read it as a Carrie-like moral parable, perhaps, but bringing out caterpillars' carnivorous tendencies is just sound strategy on the part of tomato plants.
It's a twist of fate that wouldn't feel out of place in a horror movie: A platoon of caterpillars, young and hungry, descend on a defenseless tomato plant to feast, but as they begin to eat something goes terribly wrong. The leaves no longer satisfy, and they turn on each other in a cannibalistic frenzy feeding wildly until just one, sated and content, remains.You can read it as a Carrie-like moral parable, perhaps, but bringing out caterpillars' carnivorous tendencies is just sound strategy on the part of tomato plants.