It might be easier to breed or to hybridize a new species of large hornet or wasp, which are amenable to electronic control from a chip they are carrying - which implants into their own nervous system. Some of them are over 5 cm in length already. They are probably amenable to being steered by certain natural stimulate.
This kind of remote control is happening with mammals - why not insects? http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/scientist-who-gave-rats-sixth-sens e-promises-bigger-revolutions-ahead-8498635.html It would probably be easy to change the venom that the hornets carry to some kind of nerve toxin. Yikes. From: David Roberson A new definition of a "Stinger Missile". :-) Dave -----Original Message----- From: Eric Walker Something fun to fret about: the robot itself is a tiny little thing, barely larger than a US cent. http://images.sciencedaily.com/2013/05/130502142649.jpg >From the article: the next steps will involve integrating the parallel work of many different research teams who are working on the brain, the colony coordination behavior, the power source, and so on, until the robotic insects are fully autonomous and wireless. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/05/130502142649.htm What they did not mention is that you could outfit one of these little robots with some kind of poison dart, bringing us much closer to our hunter-seeker than I had anticipated. We are basically there now, assuming these things aren't too noisy. Eric
