I was lucky enough to take a biology course with my brother during my first year at university. It was during this class that he announced to me with disgust that he hated "meat biology". Any and all animals and what made up their tissues and systems were creepy and distasteful to study, but plants were all right. It was this realization that steered him toward two degrees and a career in agriculture and plant sciences. Meanwhile, I have always held a fascination for both the fleshy and the leafy living things in this world. So, here is a science lesson in some of the creepy crawlies that inhabit our every day lives (sorry James!):
Yesterday, I saw this beautiful green praying mantis sitting on our wall I grabbed the camera and took a few shots. After three photos, it decided that being on the wall wasn't such a great idea after all and flew/jumped onto the road beside the wall. Coincidentally, a split second later, a car drove past and ran it over. Considering that tires really only take up a small percentage of the road surface, that praying mantis was extremely unlucky.
I decided to run over and take a few post-mortem shots of my ill fated friend and was kind of horrified to find this large brown horsehair worm (Nematomorpha) writhing and wriggling its way out of the mantis' abdomen. If you ever happen upon one of these worms in a puddle, mud, or crawling out of some dead insect, don't be too alarmed. They don't prey on anything but insects and are absolutely harmless to humans. That being said, they are super creepy and it is hard not to flinch away from them as they coil back and forth, especially since some of them can get up to two meters long (shudder).
They live inside some insects during their larval stage absorbing the host's nutrients and break out of the insect to develop into non-parasitic, water dwelling adults. Some studies have shown that the worms can even affect their insect hosts behaviour making them jump into water and drown when it is time for the adult worm to emerge. Maybe this praying mantis thought the road was water? If you keep your eye out for them, I am sure you will come across one sooner or later whether you want to or not.
They live inside some insects during their larval stage absorbing the host's nutrients and break out of the insect to develop into non-parasitic, water dwelling adults. Some studies have shown that the worms can even affect their insect hosts behaviour making them jump into water and drown when it is time for the adult worm to emerge. Maybe this praying mantis thought the road was water? If you keep your eye out for them, I am sure you will come across one sooner or later whether you want to or not.
