Hi all

Many observers have speculated that CCD may be caused by viruses. Additionally, the disappearing behavior may be a mechanism initiated by the virus. Here is new work showing how a virus affects the behavior of gypsy moths, ensuring widespread dispersal:

> European gypsy moth caterpillars (Lymantria dispar) have an arduous existence, scaling trees at night to feed on leaves then trekking all the way back down to the safety of the ground during the day. But a baculovirus can dramatically change this behaviour -- a caterpillar in the final stages of infection no longer returns to the ground. Death is then swift -- the virus unleashes a battery of enzymes that digest the caterpillar from the inside out, releasing a rain of new viral particles from the liquefying animal. Because this happens up high, the virus is dispersed widely.  -- Nature News

See:
A Gene for an Extended Phenotype
Kelli Hoover, et al. Science 9 September 2011 
Vol. 333 no. 6048 p. 1401 

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