For people in north Queensland, a bright green caterpillar’s sting ‘feels like the seven rings of hell’. But scientists in Brisbane hope its toxin can be used to heal, not harmThe devil arrived at Andrew Walker’s laboratory in a cardboard box. Its fluorescent green body, covered in a thicket of menacing spikes, was adorned at both ends with a pair of black horns.is known as the electric caterpillar.
Alongside Glenn King, an affable biochemist who leads the Institute’s “bugs and drugs” group, and a former colleague, Volker Herzig, the group has collected venom from more than 500 species, building an unrivalled collection of animal toxins.“This is by far the biggest invertebrate venom library in the world – probably the biggest venom library in the world,” King says.
Inside the space is not much larger than an apartment bedroom. The sterile white and windowless laboratory is punctuated by three large grey cabinets – the kind you might find at a large hardware store. Walker opens one, plucks out a plastic lunchbox and lifts the lid. “My idea was that, if you went to a different group of animals that had evolved venom independently, then you would start to see very different types of molecules,” he says.are generally much larger than caterpillars and produce a lot more venom. The typical yield after milking a spider can be measured in microlitres. Venom yield in caterpillars is measured in nanolitres – amounts barely perceptible in a test tube.
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