Why would a sterile male cricket mate with an infertile female? On the surface, this behaviour makes no sense: sex takes energy and effort, and there’s nothing in it for either of these partners. Neither one can foster the next generation.

This virus is the latest example of parasitic mind control—a topic that I’ve covered regularly on this blog, and that I spoke about at the recent TED2014 conference.

Scientists have now documented hundreds of such manipulators. There are wasps that turn caterpillars into head-banging bodyguards, and those that take cockroaches for walks. There are tapeworms that make shrimps sociable, and those that turn sticklebacks into heat-seekers. There’s Toxoplasma gondii, which sends rodents running towards cats.

And