Internal parasites

[Rick]

Thanks. I am going to add the other one to it once it ecloses.

 

[yen_saw]

Now I know what killed the mantis nymph I found in MO. bad flies :angry: !! this is like the ultimate revenge for the flies, amazing stuff.

 

[massaman]

I think most of the flies around where I live are trying to find a place to overwinter their maggots as one of my mantids was eating a fly captured outside and close to the end of fly err the last piece of fly the mantis dropped there were several real small maggots that dropped to the bottom of the enclosure and these were smaller then a grain of rice and little smaller then a fruit fly!

 

[massaman]

The developmental response of flesh flies

http://www.springerlink.com/content/t8007703r55312m4/

A study of flesh flies

http://www.innovations-report.com/html/rep...port-85183.html

 

[Rick]

These parasitic wasps came out of an ooth I collected a couple weeks ago:

Hole where one emerged:

 

[Ntsees]

These parasitic wasps came out of an ooth I collected a couple weeks ago....

How many wasps came out?

 

[ismart]

Jeeze Rick! You have a cesspool of mantid parasites by you! :lol: There even attacking introduced species!

 

[massaman]

kind of like me I am near wooded areas and its just chop full of parasitic flies but have not seen many wasps!

 

[Rick]

How many wasps came out?

Not sure yet. The ooth was sent to another member and he reported it to me.

 

[Peter Clausen]

I'm still looking forward to seeing what comes out of that other larger pupa you shared, Rick. I found a very similar, but larger, pupa on the ground in Arizona a few months back. It had that same neck-like breathing tube (if that's what it is?). I saved it, but it's packed in my bug freezer somewhere.

Oh! Flies in the freezer...gotta run...

 

[Rick]

I'm still looking forward to seeing what comes out of that other larger pupa you shared, Rick. I found a very similar, but larger, pupa on the ground in Arizona a few months back. It had that same neck-like breathing tube (if that's what it is?). I saved it, but it's packed in my bug freezer somewhere.Oh! Flies in the freezer...gotta run...

Ya gotta set a timer Peter! :lol:

Still waiting on that one to emerge.

 

[revmdn]

How many wasps came out?

About a dozen so far. A bunch more holes also.

 

[Ntsees]

About a dozen so far. A bunch more holes also.

Are you going to find out if any nymphs will hatch from the ooth? I wonder if there were any eggs that were not eaten.

 

[Christian]

Prasitized ooths usually still hatch!

 

[Rick]

Prasitized ooths usually still hatch!

That's what I told him. I sent him another one as a courtesy. I found several old, hatched ooths with the same holes in the sides.

 

[revmdn]

Yeah, I'm still trying to hatch it. But there are still wasps coming out.

 

[ismart]

Yeah, I'm still trying to hatch it. But there are still wasps coming out.

No worries, that ooth probally has over a hundred nymphs in it easy!

 

[Ntsees]

No worries, that ooth probally has over a hundred nymphs in it easy!

Yeah, I was thinking that too. What was on my mind was that will the parasites unknowingly "save" some nymphs so that the species will be able to egg-parasitize the mantids again in the future- basically, not trying to completely eliminate the host progeny. If no mantids hatch, then woah, we have something that can effectively eliminate mantids .

 

[Rick]

Yeah, I was thinking that too. What was on my mind was that will the parasites unknowingly "save" some nymphs so that the species will be able to egg-parasitize the mantids again in the future- basically, not trying to completely eliminate the host progeny. If no mantids hatch, then woah, we have something that can effectively eliminate mantids .

That is probably the case. Gotta let some live.

 

[Rick]

Couple pics of a narrow winged mantis ooth from the field. Seems the wasps hatch out before winter hits. I saw this on these ooths and s. carolina ooths. No evidence of it on the chinese ooths. I wonder if their thick foam prevents the wasps from laying eggs in them? Also, I wonder if that helps explain their ever increasing numbers over the others? Click the pics to enlarge.