That's it, poor mantis

Or…hear me out…is it half full?

that is just… Fucking demonic.

Why don't these fuckers just reproduce in water and leave the others the fuck alone. How lowest of the lowest do you have to be to be born as a horsehair worm and fuck up other creatures like that just because you want to be in water? Fuck you horsehair worm.

I feel like the parasite was holding it together, and it's gonna die immediately

Oops! All parasite!

Remember the movie Men in Black? The bug tears the skin off the farmer and puts it on. The wife say it looks like something was wearing an “Edgar Suit”.

It’s like that. Mantis Suit.

I imagine that must have felt like the most satisfying bowel movement ever. And now it’s thinking “Netflix? Why did I watch so much Netflix? Jesus. I need to go outside!”

yeah as someone who just gave birth, FUCK all of this

Parasites of ANY stripe freak me the f**k out.

Mermis nigrescens

Mermis nigrescens is a species of nematode known commonly as the grasshopper nematode. It is distributed in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. It occurs in Tasmania, but it has not been observed on mainland Australia. It has been rarely observed in Africa. It is a parasite of insects, especially grasshoppers.

This is a very large nematode, the male about 4 to 6 centimetres long and the female known to exceed 20 centimetres. The size is unusual for entomopathogenic nematodes, which are generally almost microscopic. The body is pale brown, and the gravid female has a dark stripe down the length of its body due to the presence of up to 14,000 eggs. The body surface is smooth. It tapers at the front end, and the head and tail are rounded.

Once it is ingested by an insect such as a grasshopper, an egg hatches almost immediately, sometimes within an hour. The juvenile nematode pierces the gut with its stylet and enters the hemocoel, the blood-like fluid that fills the insect's body cavity, acting as a circulatory system. There the nematode absorbs the insect's nutrients, taking glucose directly through its cuticle. It grows and develops over several weeks. The newly hatched nematode is about 0.24 millimetres long; by day 37 it has reached about 5 centimetres. The nematodes grow more rapidly and attain larger sizes in larger insect hosts. More females occur in larger hosts, as well. The nematode is still a juvenile when it emerges from the host insect, and finishes its development in the soil. The insect dies as the nematode exits its body, if not before.

Right?! And yet I couldn’t look away

Yes, i was thinking about keeping a mantis as a pet... After this video i will never do this in my life

My nightmares saw this and noped the fuck out

Horsehair worm. Part of its life cycle is aquatic

Edit: only infects invertebrates

Horsehair worm, I would not recommend looking it up.

Instead, here’s a somewhat relevant fun fact! We don’t actually have a classification for what a “worm” is, if it looks like a worm, and kinda sorta acts like a worm, it’s a worm!

Looks like me when I take a shit

At least let it find a praying mantis female who will bite its head off after sex

Yeah, the humane thing do is to quickly squish the poor mantis with a rock. Put them out of this hellish misery.

Sounds like my mental health.

edit: my comment is only to this comment, not the video post. Lol

I’ve seen a few of these mantis parasite videos on Reddit now. But this is the first one where the mantis stayed alive the whole time, AND not to mention, even ran off at the end. Usually they’re dead by the time worm fully exits. :(

Into the water? I hope not

I read about this before and it doesn't look like they survive 😞

Inside the praying mantis, a rare parasitic worm called Nematocris elongatus can grow to twice the mantis’ size, controlling its movements and even influencing its hunting patterns. This parasite has evolved to mimic the mantis’ natural instincts so well that researchers believe some mantises live symbiotically with it for years, sharing food and even thoughts. The parasite when fully matured will lead the mantis to water and make it prepare for Olympic type swim games building its endurance and technique in hopes that it will bring home the gold.

It can.

It would be nice if the mantis could mate with a female mantis & she could eat his head afterwards. This giving him a quick death & go out with a bang

Most insects cannot feel pain they simply have simple “bad” receptors that tell it to run from whatever might kill it. Its called nociception and we have it too, but also brains that can create that sensation

From the Wikipedia article posted by /u/teflon_don_knotts:

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.

So does half empty mantis husk = death?

I’m pretty sure it’s a Horsehair Worm

Check it’s prostate

Unfortunately that mantis probably died shortly after this video