Robot insects are nothing new as Botropolis readers know, but here’s a terrifying new take on it. Two separate groups each have found new ways to merge bug and machine. A group of scientists from Tokyo University’s Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology have not only used a live silkmoth to control a toy car, but have also severed the head of a moth and wired it into the vehicle pictured above.

They direct stimuli to the moth’s still-functioning antennae and can record the motor commands issued by the brain’s nerve cells to control the vehicle. This lets them study and record data on how neurons respond to stimulus. It also keeps them from making friends at dinner parties.

The second group making bug history is Pentagon contractor OpCoast, which is working on some full on “cyborg crickets” that behave like the real thing but can form a mobile communications network in an emergency situation. That network could eventually consist of hundreds or thousands of the crickets which, like real crickets, would communicate with each other through wing beats, and even be able to vary their “call tone” when they detect the presence of chemical or biological agents, or when a person is trapped somewhere.

[Engadget]