Hearing about fields full of dead caterpillars enveloped in a mysterious white substance intrigued the South African scientist Letodi Luki Mathulwe. Something was killing off the African armyworm – one of the most devastating pests for farmers in east and southern Africa.
The white substance was a naturally occurring fungus and it was wiping out the caterpillar, which gained its name from its march-like advance through fields of crops.
