interesting article

[massaman]

something i thought would be maybe of interest

http://www.sciencebuzz.org/blog/hairworm_o...ing_from_mantis

 

[Rick]

We had a thread about those awhile back. I think there is a video floating around too.

When I was a kid I used to find carolina mantids with a large grub worm thing inside their abdomens. They would be very fat and inside was a fat maggot looking parasite that was making them look fat. The individuals I found these in were always small even late into the season. It appeared that the parasite was using up their food causing a slow growth rate. I have never seen it since then.

Also used to find grasshoppers that were full of worms. Not sure if they were hairworms or not.

 

[hibiscusmile]

I still do not know why I read these posts! :blink: but they are interesting. Last year I had three worms come out of a grasshopper, made me sick it did!

 

[jameslongo]

Does the parasitic worm/grub purely mooch off of the host insect or does it eventually kill it?

 

[Rick]

Does the parasitic worm/grub purely mooch off of the host insect or does it eventually kill it?

If you're talking about the ones I found years ago I am not sure. Those were something way different than the horsehair worms. I was a kid so I didn't really find out much about it. I just knew that if I saw a small fat mantis nymph late in the year it had the worm inside.

 

[tier]

While the definition of a parasite is that he usually not kills his host, most members of the Mermithidae causes parasitosis, which kills its host. Most of these insect parasitizing worms are members of the Mermithidae, killing thier hosts.

regards,

the parasitologist

 

[MantidLord]

Isn't it that if you put the horsehair worm infected bug inside water, the worm will come out, killing the bug. And that the worm will send a chemical message to the host to drown itself so the worm can come out and mate.