A caterpillar outwits corn defenses by gorging on fattening ‘junk’ food
The crop plants recruit zombie-maker wasps, but one pest has a desperate work-around
![wasp and leafworm](https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/051818_SM_plant-chem-defenses_feat.jpg?fit=860%2C460&ssl=1)
DESPERATE BATTLE Eating disgusting leaves may save an Egyptian cotton leafworm (right) from the zombie-making Microplitis rufiventris wasp that a corn plant lured in with odors.
Matthias Held/University of Neuchâtel