This Is What All Mantises Are Afraid of

The honey badger and the mantis, you have to admit, are the bravest creatures in the animal world, but while the honey badger doesn't really know fear, the mantis sometimes fears for its life, especially on two occasions, it's not I need to tell you. What is the first after mating? Males often die. Yes, some female

mantises

bite off the heads of the males after their wedding night, but there is another dangerous situation and it doesn't really leave the

mantises

any chance to survive. Look closely at

what

is about to happen. now

this

man is holding a common mantis and putting it in the water although mantises don't like it very much and

what

looks like a scene from the alien movie is a creature called a hair worm,

this

is just an invertebrate but it can take control.

The mind of a mantis and fills its entire body long before this happens The hair worm makes a rather difficult journey to reach the final destination and carry out its plan It all starts with the eggs laid in a river or pond over time They become larvae eaten by other aquatic insects or rather insects simply think they are being eaten, although in reality hairworm larvae only need to hitchhike to enter another person's body, once inside, they burrow into the host's flesh, curls up and grows a hard shell and waits. It doesn't take long before the mature insect grows wings and emerges from the water, which is quite useful because the hairworm larva has big plans for the future;

You need to get the mantis to eat the insect host and that's when the real life of an adult begins. The hairworm begins life as a terrifying parasite, but the main goal of any living creature is to leave offspring. Parasites live this way, not because they are evil, it is just their evolutionary adaptation, so to leave offspring, the hairworm needs to get inside. water the mantis must carry the parasite there although it generally prefers to stay away from water so as not to become easy prey for birds and fish the hair worm needs to make an effort affects the chemicals in the mantis's brain that make the insect wander without thinking until it reaches the water, but the mantis does not simply fall into the water once it is near the water, it is affected by the light reflecting off the surface of the water and jumps there, the hairworm comes out almost immediately of the host's body and nowhere to reproduce.

Of course, and finding new hosts, so what does the mantis feel during all that? Well, we can only assume that it's not like the manuscripts tell us how they feel, but here are the facts: the larva becomes a worm that eats fats in its host's body, which are a source of energy so that the mantis stops developing stops growing and mating perhaps it feels exhausted but it is still not enough the hair worm must be sure that its host is not eaten on its way to the water and make the victim act as cautiously as possible this is not true only for mantises other insects such as crickets are also victims of hair worms crickets infected by hair worms remain silent and lose their chirp because this sound attracts predators also some scientists believe that the worm It shares its immune system with the victims to maintain their health and not accidentally kill them early, this is a strange care, although the worm inside the hose can easily grow up to 24 inches long, this does not make the victim grow as well , although yes.

This does not mean that parasite-infected insects look the same as other insects. I already mentioned that hairworms eat fats and prevent their hosts from growing. In fact, even infected adult crickets or manuses look more like the insects affected by adolescents, having shorter legs and wings and different antennae in In short, if you put an infected insect and a common one next to each other, you will see the difference immediately and then an important question came to mind: what happens next? Hair worms grow very large and it seems that not a single living creature can do it. survive by coexisting with a neighbor as soon as the worm leaves the host's body, the latter is supposed to die immediately, that's what Steve and I thought when we started making this video, but then we discovered that manuses and crickets are Very tenacious guys, yes.

They can drown if they are swept away by the current, most likely this is what will happen, but otherwise these insects manage to survive living with the hairworm or even several of them infected simply return to normal and continue living as Usually if I go there, it dies, if you think about it, the only way the insects can get rid of the parasites is to simply wait until they come out. Evolution didn't give them a plan b unless we're talking about the marine gastropod mollusk Alicia marginita. This creature uses perhaps the strangest way to get rid of parasites it gets rid of the body no seriously it looks like a decapitation the only thing left of the mollusk is the head that has not been touched by the parasites in a few days the body begins to grow again and three weeks later the mollusk regenerates 80 of its body, including all vital organs, a completely new body is always an exact copy of the previous one infested with parasites, but the new one remains healthy, but how is that possible?

I mean living with a head alone without a heart and other usual things that are needed. several hours for alicia marginita to separate the head from the body after that the malicia can survive for a few more weeks this is possible thanks to the unusual ability of mollusks to survive through photosynthesis it is called kleptoplasty the animal kidnaps the chloroplasts of the algae in the body and for some time they continue to do photosynthesis as if nothing had happened, yes, I didn't believe it right away when Steve told me about it either, but if that doesn't seem shocking enough to you, here's another fact that just blew me away.

Some mollusks can also survive for days or even months without a head. It is true that the body cannot grow a new head, but the heart will continue to beat. Imagine if people solved problems this way. You stub your toe, just take your leg off and grow a new one. It doesn't hurt, that's absurd, on the other hand, how are animals supposed to deal with that, that they can't just take a medicine and kill the parasites? Even the most advanced ones are not able to invent such effective medicines, at least we By the way, I have not heard of it yet, because of the way scientists used to think that different migratory animals, such as deer, simply run away from parasites to colder areas.

It seems that if you are constantly moving no one will cling to you, however, a 2018 study showed that Migratory animals have even more parasites than those that stay in one place and probably contract different types along the way, so That developing a new body is not a bad option in wildlife because, as you may have already realized, parasites are not always creatures that simply eat their hosts outright. This even seems like the best option compared to creatures that turn owners into zombies, but how do they do it? Do they get into the animal's brain and whisper things to it?

It's no longer you, now it's me so they study how parasites take over someone's mind, they even created a new branch of science called neuroparasitology, the interactions between the host and the parasite, of course, did not appear yesterday, the Evolution took millions of years to get to something like this, but it seems that everything comes eventually. up to a complex brain chemistry, a very, very complex brain chemistry, depending on the result that the parasite strives to achieve, it affects the neural mechanisms through some chemicals, for example, the cordyceps fungus uses certain chemicals, but still unknown , to make ants climb as high as possible on a plant. and remain there until the fungus completely consumes the insect.

A parasitic worm with the complex name lancet liver fluke also affects the navigation skills of the ants so that the insect climbs higher in the grass and is eaten by some cow. hair that I already mentioned forces mannises and other terrestrial insects into water in a similar way, other chemicals activate the bodyguard function in insects anyway, that's what scientists call it, but I would say that brain chemicals make caterpillars and ladybugs move their bodies to scare away predators, this helps the parasites' babies survive and you know. What scientists managed to discover were many species with similar parasitic behavior, they even created a new scientific branch, but this did not clarify the principles of how chemicals work.

Of course, people continue to investigate, but in most scientific articles you will only find phrases like and then the parasite sprays something into the victim's brain and does what exactly it is spraying how it works we have no idea toxoplasmosis continues The best studied case being a disease caused by the protozoan parasite toxoplasma gandhi infects rodents, reduces their aversion to Cats condemn their host to certain death. Ultimately, the parasite needs to enter the cat's body, so the rodent has to carry it. There are still many different mysterious parasites. Take saculina as an example. Have you ever heard of her?

Actually, it's a barnacle it looks like. like a shell, but unlike most barnacles which simply attach to rock and filter food from the water, the saculina has evolved to become a parasite, the microscopic sacculina larva searches for the unsuspecting crab using specialized sensory organs and then attaches itself to the most vulnerable part of the shell and after a while, as a tough parasite is supposed to do, it takes over the body and mind of the host, prevents the crab from reproducing and then turns it into a babysitter Affectionate, the crab tends to the saculina babies as if it were its own and it doesn't matter if the parasite targets a male, the same mysterious chemicals will affect the hormones.

She convinces the poor animal that she is female and should act like a female. Well, you have to admit it's really cool, maybe some of our viewers will be so interested. in neuroparasitology that one day they will decipher the composition of all these chemicals that affect the minds of animals, who knows, see you later.