Electrostatics effects of jumping nematodes

Flows of tracer particles show the attractive force of a positively charged fruit fly. Parasitic nematodes use this static charge to leap onto the insects. Victor Ortega Jimenez/University of California, Berkeley

Assistant Professor Victor Ortega-Jiménez and his lab have discovered that jumping entomopathogenic nematodes can be electrostatically attracted by the natural electric fields of the flying insects, thus increasing the effectiveness attachment to distant hosts and likelihood of infection. Read more about the research in these articles by Scientific American and Science