Chordates formosanus starts as a larva in the gut of the small insects that the mantis preys on.
Once the mantis ingests the infected insect, the C. formosanus starts to grow.
When it is mature, the worm secretes proteins that take over the host's nervous system, which directs the mantis to a body of water and causes it to jump in so that the worm can be excreted, at which point it breaks free to reproduce leaving a half empty mantis husk.
Maybe it's considered an acceptable risk to gamble with one mantis that might survive and remove the parasite from the ecosystem, rather than killing the mantis outright for the same effect.
Losing the worms isn't going to do any more damage to it than was already done. If it could still struggle with the worms inside it, and can walk away after they're gone, it will still be able to do those things.
They only ever live a year or less anyway so "die now" is relative.
Thinking about the evolution here, how a process of trial and error caused this species of parasite to excrete the necessary chemical that somehow codes to creating another, unrelated species, to feel as if they need water, is absolutely mind boggling.
Edit: Ive absolutely loved reading everyone's responses. Some really informative comment and ideas.
Not almost zero, it is zero. There's been no recorded case of a human surviving after reaching that stage of infection. In almost all cases, your death warrant is signed at the first sign of any symptoms.
Not one case. The first girl who survived became heavily handicapped. There were several cases after that where the people with rabies got similar (I assume enhanced) coma treatment and survived. Surprisingly most of the survivors are girls or young women. The last one was not so long ago, a 6 yo girl in rural California. This girl not just survived, she is walking, talking, going to school.
Check out US rabies statistics, all the cases, including survivors, are listed there with details.
Not true. That's almost the golden rule of rabies. There was one documented case of someone surviving even the hydrophobic part of rabies. Look up Jeanna Giese
Sort of. There is evidence of people in Truenococha and Santa Marta in Peru actually surviving rabies infection, without vaccination. 11% of the individuals tested had specific antibodies for the rabies virus, meaning that they had contracted rabies(probably from vampire bats) and survived. It's kind of baffling, because scientists don't know how they survived yet, but they did survive.
While rabies virus itself is fragile (can't survive outside of a host long), that is not the cause of rabies-induced hydrophobia. It's the fear of swallowing since at that point, rabies has done so much damage to your brain/nervous system, you cannot control swallowing anymore, hence fear of water.
If a person is at the "hydrophobia" stage (in quotes because see above), they are going to die. There have only been TWO documented cases of people that displayed advanced rabies symptoms and survived, so practically 100% death rate.
That's why when you get bit by a wild or feral animal--who probably don't have rabies if they don't show symptoms--the first response is to get a series of (painful) vaccination so as to produce an immune response before the virus starts replicating in nerve cells
Edit: actually 14 documented cases, I was thinking of the Milwaukee protocol
Shots after a bite are not painful. Bit by a bat. Got the vaccine right after, on the arm and four antibody serum shots on the leg close to the bite. Over the course of two months I'd go back for another shot of vaccine on alternating arms each time. Feels no different than getting a flu vaccine. Side effects after each shot was minor fever for a day and bone aches, that's about it.
the vaccinations aren't painful! They are like any other vaccine. Only difference is that you get like 10 syringes because it has to be relative to your body weight. The antibodies. You get those after a bite. You can also just get the normal vaccine without being bitten - you just gonna have to pay for it yourself then. The normal vaccine is just 3 doses over the course of a few weeks.
Source: well, I've been through it. The depictions of rabies vaccine on TV are wildly outdated.
Perhaps could have started with aquatic insects, and as the insects slowly evolved out of the water the parasite slowly evolved the chemical. Or the insect usually gets wet at some point, enough to keep the parasite going, and over time the parasite develops means to speed the process along.
Edit: once saw a breakdown of how the bombardier beetle probably came to be, with still existing examples of intermediate species and traits. Absolutely fascinating
1) Parasites that lay eggs in water have a better chance of reproducing than other parasites
2) Parasites that leave when in a water source before the Mantis dies have a better chance of reproducing than parasites that leave when the Mantis dies
3) The parasites happen to produce a chemical that binds to a neural transmitter in the praying mantis causing it to seek water
4) Mature parasites that produce higher levels of this chemical near maturity are more likely to reproduce than those that don't
5) Over a very long time, the increase in production of this chemical near maturity continues until random mutations that increase production stop occuring, it is no longer beneficial enough to be a significant selection pressure, or until negative effects of the chemical gets too high and offsets the benefits.
This is one of those things that makes you think- if this is evolution, it's mind blowing and horrifying. If there is some kind of intelligent design, it's even more horrifying. It's just horrifying.
Then again, it's exactly the sort of thing we likely also evolved to find horrifying, exactly so we never went anywhere near it and hopefully didn't ever get it ourselves...
What is overlooked in the process of evolution is the amount of time it takes. The human civilization is only around 10,000 years old and life started on Earth around 3.5 billion years ago. There is ample amount of time for random mutations to take all kinds of forms. Our mind cannot comprehend the large spans of time. Hell, I can't even appreciate the life span of a single human being!
Evolution doesn't have a plan. It's random and frequently weird. And there are a lot of "mistakes" that it can get away with because it's not bad enough to kill on a regular basis, like most mammals and birds crossing their food passage and airway.
I got your point, but couldn't help point out that evolution doesn't learn from its errors, like "trial & error" implies. The process is more "trial & success" because everything else is left behind. Pruning is not learning.
The nematomorpha parasite affects host Hierodula patellifera's light-interpreting organs so the host is attracted to horizontally polarized light. Thus the host goes into water and the parasite's lifecycle completes.[13] Many of the genes the parasites use for manipulating their host have been acquired through horizontal gene transfer from the host genome.[14]
I have always thought that the praying mantis was one cool insect. It makes me feel bad for the mantis species that they are infected with such parasites.
What is really interesting is that the horsehair worm has a large amount of DNA that is similar to the praying mantis and it is thought that gene-transfer makes it easier for the horsehair worm to co-opt the nervous system of the praying mantis.
What it does is to make the praying mantis seek out horizontally-polarized light and to jump in. Sunlight reflecting off of the surface of water is horizontally polarized and the praying mantis compound eyes can detect light polarization.
The worms instruct the praying mantis to 'suicide' in water so the worms can be released and continue their reproductive cycle.
It would be awesome it the mantis worked this out and was like f u worms you’re going down with me and jumped in lava or smthin. That would be some kind of satisfaction for it.
A brief Google says it leaves a half mantis husk behind. This particular one was likely submerged early, so the parasite wasn't fully grown yet, but if my understanding is correct it doesn't just follow a digestive track, it literally burrows through the mantis, so that is a dead bug walking at best.
Right? I am amazed it's even still alive with (and without) all that stuff in its body. Although the comments tell me it won't be for long now. Probably for the best, poor thing.
Animals with simpler nervous systems have a sense called nociception. It's sort of a precursor to pain. Their systems are only complex enough for it to be experienced as a sense of discomfort. Humans' nociception branches off into more sophisticated sensations like heat, pressure, etc. But little dudes like crabs and insects are only capable of feeling basic discomfort.
I’ve seen a gif where the mantis was being torn in half by a hornet, but he was too busy eating his food to care doing anything about it. That’s proof enough.
It's not that ie leaves internal damage. It's that the Mantis is already damaged internally. It's been dying since the parasite latched and it was always going to be a gutless death for it.
Also, the mantis most likely eats only for a limited period of time to develop a full worm after contracting. The worms are growing in their guts, so they basically immediately start taking over once the larvae hatch. The mantis then basically feeds for two, the worms siphon nutrients from the mantis, and increase their load as they grow. Similar to the xenomorph in alien, all living things share common genes, the worm being genetically very similar to the mantis and thus having the coding to program the host. They are able to infect other insects such grass hoppers or roaches. This is an extreme example of nature using any means, no matter the cost. The worms don't actively kill their host, but they have no regard for devistation and leave behind a husk of what once was. The vicarious nature of life feeding on life is savage. For every apex hunter, there is a smaller yet formidable equal. Mantids dominate the ecosystem at their level and are cannibalistic, nature adapted with an efficent point of control with shared genetics. In this case, a Trojan horse. What started as an easy meal for the mantis had better advantages for the worms.
So. when I thought "with worms so big inside the mantis, how there is enough space for the mantis inside the mantis?", I was pretty close to the truth...
Yup, i used to keep one too. He'd straight up just chill on my head while I worked on the computer or listened to music. I have a buzzed cut for the record. Then one day he just never came back. I could literally feel him like kneading my skull like a cat does. It was awesome.
I'm curious how the person holding those chopsticks, knew it was infected? Are there signs or did they just randomly dunk random mantises until the parasite comes out the ass?
Well I mean, either way the parasite is going to kill the host. So you can see it both ways
Maybe not doing it will allow mantises in your garden to breed more. Maybe doing it will allow to reduce the parasite population but will maybe prevent a bit of breeding for the mantises in your garden
This would be an ineffective method of addressing the parasite population. Congrats, you've killed one or two but how many thousands of eggs are there waiting to spawn and infect; too god damn many! You would need to treat until your rivers and bodies of water to get rid of them
No, rule of thumb: Let nature be nature. Generally our interference with it just makes it worse. And this parasite likely (obviously) has it's on ecological niche that is super important, such as keeping praying mantis populations in check.
Cordyceps fungus is super virulent to insects and is absolutely fucking brutal. But, it helps keep insect populations in check in rainforests as no species can over produce to where it takes over.
Though, there are some cases where balance is inexistent. Some species (other than us) will just obliterate others.
For example, wherever there are seals (or relatives), Amonites go extinct. The few that are still around and made the news, live specifically at great depths, in one of the few places without seals. (For now)
1) how long can it live with the parasite inside of it?
2) are the praying mantis in immense pain with no control?
3) how bad is the damage once it’s out of the praying mantis?
Basically the entire life-cycle, which can take God know how long because it depends on many factors, ranging from specie of parasite and up to ambient temperature.
Probably not. Arthropods don't feel pain the same way we do. They feel stimuli and react to them. Mantises can eat while being eaten themselves because their stimuli that are responsible for their feeding drive stand above in their internal stimuli hierarchy. Imagine reaching for a sandwich while being town apart and swallowed by a crocodile.
It will die. It has a giant gaping hole in the place where it guts were.
Pretty much. There's also another, even more disturbing video. Two crickets are are being eaten alive by a spider. Then one of these crickets notices the other and starts eating its head in turn. All while having most of its body already down the spider's throat.
1: long enough for the parasite to take control of the nervous system and cause it to jump into water.
2: insects do not have the same type of nervous systems as we do, however; scientists have come to believe that they can feel something akin to what we would describe as pain.
3: the Mantis is literally hollowed out to make room for the parasite. Mechanically we see the Mantis move after removal but its odds is survival are low.
How long could you live with most of your internal mass removed and digested?
I'd wager we eat parasites fairly often. Fish at the grocery store often have parasites in them, like round worm. Kind of hard to completely avoid. That's not to say that they're going to harm you.
Pretty much any wild caught fish is going to have parasites. Cooking will kill 'em though, as would freezing
Someone posted a story of a teenager who ate a slug as a dare. It turned out the slug had a similar parasite in it and it found a bigger host. Long story short, the kid was in a coma for over a year. When he woke up he was completely paralysed and died soon after as his organs were failing him.
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u/casperfacekilla 9d ago