
Attention Wasps: Uncle Sam Wants You By Jan Suszkiw July 19, 1999Tiny parasitic wasps that attack
crop-hungry caterpillars may be recruited for a new assignment. U.S. Department of Agricultureentomologist Joe Lewis is studying the wasps potential to sniff out
chemical odors from unexploded ordnances such as bombs, mines, or toxins in
nerve gases. The four-year project is funded by
Controlled Biological
Systems (CBS), a program administered by the
Department of Defenses
Advanced Research Projects Agency(DARPA). Lewis research group is one of several helping DARPA explore new ways
of monitoring the environment around military, civilian, or agricultural areas
for chemical or biological threats, particularly from terrorist activity. One CBS interest is developing new detection technologies patterned after
the olfactory and neural mechanisms by which insects smell odors with their
antennae. CBS coordinator Alan Rudolph first contacted Lewis a year ago, after
learning of Lewis work with Microplitis, Cotesia, and
Cardiochiles wasps at the
Insect Biology and Population
Management Research Lab, operated in Tifton, Georgia, by USDAs
Agricultural Research Service. ARS is
USDAs chief scientific agency. The work of Lewis, Iowa State
University collaborator Tim Baker, and ARS chemist Jim Tumlinson, is
three-pronged. One is tuning the wasps sense of smell to the odor of
cyclohexanol, trinitrotuluene (TNT) and other explosives ingredients; the
second is tying specific wasp behaviors to a specific odors presence; and
the third is determining how best to employ the wasps. One possibility: placing them in a mobile probe where air samples can be
smelled. Another is rigging detached wasp antennae to a remotely-controlled
sensor that displays the electrical readings. What makes this possible? Scientists can teach the wasps to find odors
otherwise ignored in nature. In flight tunnel experiments, scientists showed
that the wasps would fly towards tubes emitting cyclohexanol, TNT, vanilla and
methyl jasmonate at rates of 0.05 to 30 nanograms per minute one meter
downwind. In nature, this dog-like sense of smell helps wasps find plants where
caterpillars can serve as hosts for offspring. Scientific contact: Joe Lewis, ARS Insect
Biology and Population Management Research Lab, Tifton, Ga. phone (912)
387-2369, fax (912) 382-9467, [email protected]. Story contacts Jan R Suszkiw U.S. Department of Agriculture | |