# Nematode infection



## danread (Oct 26, 2005)

I went through a few of my old _S. subspinipes_ individuals that i have pickled in alcohol today, with my camera and the stereo microscope. This individual died a few weeks ago, a couple of days after molting. I didn't think twice about it, and put it down to the stress of molting and the fact that it was an old pede, but a close inspection of the mouthparts revealed these nematodes. This is the first time i've heard of nematodes infections in centipedes, although i'm sure they are a relatively common occurence. It's just that they are very hard to notice without a microscope, and due to the fact that pedes start to smell very quickly after dying, they often get binned without close inspection. If anyone else has seen anything like this, i'd be interested to know.



















Cheers,


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## Mister Internet (Oct 26, 2005)

Dan,

I have had neither the equipment nor the desire (you are right about the stink man, they start decomp in a matter of minutes, it seems sometimes) to examine my dead specimens, but I WILL state unequivocally that all specimens I have had die on me fall ito two categories: 1) Just up and died, or 2) showed signs of a degenerative malady that seems to affect primarily the head region, resulting in the "shoveling" phenomenon witnessed by many on these boards, and death.

Maybe this "shoveling" behavior many of us have seen is the external indicator of a nematode infection?  It seems similar to behavior witnessed in nematode-infected T's, from the anecdotal evidence posted here.

Great pics though, they are certainly educational...


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## jonah (Oct 27, 2005)

excellent material...  where do you think they come from?  are they decomposers or parasitic?


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## danread (Oct 27, 2005)

My guess is that they are parasitic, although i can't be sure. If is see any on any of my other pedes i'll try and see if i can culture them on _Tenebrio_.

MI,

You make a good point about the 'shovelling' behaviour, i've seen it once or twice before, and it could well be a response to nematode infection. It woudl make sense that nematodes round the mouth would cause irritation.

Cheers,


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## J Morningstar (Oct 27, 2005)

It took a full 4 weeks for my precious Capt. Stupid to die and I would place his head in the water bowl every other day when he still reacted to tapping on the glass. I noticed the last few times that it looked like very whispy thin maggots would leave his mouth when I did this. I have extremely good close up vision and have seen nematodes before from bio class. Had never thought of this before though. 
M I, I agree that this would probally start the shoveling behaviour.
Sucks big time.


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## bistrobob85 (Oct 27, 2005)

Hm, are there any recent publications about invert internal parasites?!?! Seems like that could be interesting reading for all of us, specially with such a high % of the animals being WCs... I know that Panacur is used on reptiles being infected by Nematode type parasites, but i guess there might also be Flagellates, Trematodes, Protozoans and lots of other parasites... Great idea, Danread, to test the nematodes on Tenebrio... Let's get some scientific progress here...


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## danread (Oct 27, 2005)

There's lots of publications about entomopathogenic nematodes, i'm doing my PhD on them! (unfortunately though, my nematode ID skills are poor). I've no idea what family these nematodes belong to, but i have preserved a few of them, and if i have time i might be able to key them out, i have the literature to do it. On the other hand, there is very little to no literature aout nematode that infect tarantulas and myriapods, most of the research has been focused on species that may be of some use in biological control.

Cheers,


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## Stylopidae (Oct 27, 2005)

danread said:
			
		

> My guess is that they are parasitic, although i can't be sure. If is see any on any of my other pedes i'll try and see if i can culture them on _Tenebrio_.


I'd like to see the work on that. When you do culture them, will you post pics of the experiment?


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## danread (Oct 27, 2005)

Evil Cheshire said:
			
		

> I'd like to see the work on that. When you do culture them, will you post pics of the experiment?


Yes, of course. I've been taking lots of photos of nematode infected hosts for my work, so i could definitely do some if it works. Here's a few pictures of one of the species that i'm working on at the moment for my thesis, _Steinernema feltiae_, infecting a waxworm, _Galleria mellonella_.


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## bistrobob85 (Oct 27, 2005)

There are days like this one where i just wish i wasnt a waxworm...


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## Stylopidae (Oct 28, 2005)

So what differences in behaivior did you notice when the nematodes infected the wax worm?


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## danread (Oct 28, 2005)

Evil Cheshire said:
			
		

> So what differences in behaivior did you notice when the nematodes infected the wax worm?


Well waxworms don't exhibit a whole host of different behaviours, but the main one i noticed was that they died!


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## Steven (Oct 28, 2005)

very intresting stuff Dan !  :clap:


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## juggernaut (Oct 28, 2005)

*yea great discovery mann*

"keep up the good work"


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## jonah (Oct 29, 2005)

how do you think the nematodes are being introduced to the centipedes?


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## danread (Oct 29, 2005)

Probably in the substrate, but since i'm not 100% sure they are pathogenic, they could have been there on the centipede already, and only start to proliferate once the centipede has died.


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## danread (Dec 8, 2005)

Just an update on the nematode issue. I had one of my _Scolopendra subspinipes mutilans_ exhibiting the 'shovelling' behaviour. It was continually forcing substrate into its moutparts, despite me washing the soil out a couple of times. It finally died sometime this week, and i immediately placed in in alcohol (i forgot about trying to culture the nematodes, maybe next time!), and immediately noticed a cloud of nematodes pour out of the mouthparts. I'm pretty much convinced that this 'shovelling' behaviour is a direct result of nematodes, whether these are the cause of death, or they are opportunistic and exploit aleady ill pedes i don;t know. 

If anyone else has a pede die and exhibit the shovelling behaviour, place the pede in water (or 80% alcohol if you whish to keep it) and hold the bottle up to the light. If you can see a cloud of white particles rise from the mouth or anus, look closely and see if they are nematodes. They are tiny, the ones i saw last night were less that a mm long. It will be interesting to see how common this is.

Cheers,


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