Internal parasites
- Thread starter Rick
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ismart
Well-known member
It realy would be amazing if the mantis did survive without it's stomach contents!
I doubt the mantis crapped it out! :lol:
Ntsees
Well-known member
Rick, can you check your mantid to see if it came out from where I pointed the arrow? That dorsal mark on the abdomen looks un-natural for a carolina mantid.
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Doesn't look like it. This is weird but every carolina I have seen with this particular parasite had this color pattern. I think it came out the same way waste would. I doubt it eats the insides of the mantis but instead eats part of the mantids food. So far she is fine and they eat tomorrow so I will see if she eats or not. The parasite is larger than the mantids abdomen.
This is just gruesome,,,yuck, ycuk. I collected some chinese this last week cause it is getting really cold here, so far they look good, only diff I see is they have much bigger and moisture poop!
kamakiri
Well-known member
Wow. Imagine the movie Alien...and surviving *after* it exited!
PhilinYuma
Well-known member
So far as I know, Rick, no insect parasitoid of mantids, and it is almost certainly a fly, feeds from the mantid's gut. Insects don't live inside a host's abdomen and eat its semi digested food, they eat the host's fat and protein. Unlike nematodes and similar nasties, an insect larva cannot anchor itself to the inside of an insect's gut by its mouth parts and absorb liquids and gases through its cuticle, so it's hard to see where it would get its air from. Also, if it was using its mouth to take in food, it couldn't stay fixed in the gut and would be constantly pushed "downstream" with the food bolus on its way to the anus.
Interesting stuff, though, eh?
One of the Carolina mantis nymph collected from MO had the same problem too, I thought the nymph was going to molt but instead she was found hanging by one leg the next day, with a huge pupa on the bottom of the cage just like the one in this pic. The nymph die the next day. Bummer....
superfreak
Well-known member
are you sure the exit wound might not be in one of the lateral creases of the abdomen? check it when the nymph dies. this is fascinating!
Yeah that makes sense. I was thinking along the lines of tapeworms and others like that where they live in the gut. I admit I know next to nothing about insect parasites. So far the mantis is still alive.
Very possible. There is a strange fold on one part of the abdomen where it may have come out at.
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just hope one of my europeans is not infected as of late she did have a kind of fat gut and just recently she lost a little of the gut she had and its not real flat but a little thinner but wonder if even europeans and this time of year could get something and I am in Michigan as I said before and all I feed mine is crickets and a occasional fly that I catch outside being it gets colder outside and find the flies hugging trees either to keep warm or something but have not seen any maggots or anything yet so keeping my hopes up shes not infested!
http://www.cirrusimage.com/flies_flesh_Sarcophaga.htm
but think some of the flies i captured look kind of like these
http://www.cirrusimage.com/flies_flesh_Sarcophaga.htm
but think some of the flies i captured look kind of like these
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ismart
Well-known member
I cant believe that mantis is still alive! Every narrow-winged infected with the single parasite passed away a day later. Not to mention they were bigger then that carolina. That mantis is a trooper!
Every narrow-winged infected with the single parasite passed away a day later. Not to mention they were bigger then that carolina. That mantis is a trooper!
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She acts perfectly normal. There are no visible wounds or anything. You can see what the other kind of parasite did to that other one.I cant believe that mantis is still alive!
MantidLord
Well-known member
Wow, when are these things gonna pupate?
kamakiri
Well-known member
No idea. I wish they would though. I plan on making a display out of them. I want to have the dead mantis, the fly casing, and the fly pinned together.
