Nematode infection

[danread]

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,

 

[Mister Internet]

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...

 

[jonah]

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

 

[danread]

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,

 

[J Morningstar]

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.

 

[bistrobob85]

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...

 

[danread]

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,

 

[Stylopidae]

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?

 

[danread]

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.

 

[bistrobob85]

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

 

[Stylopidae]

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

 

[danread]

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!

 

[Steven]

very intresting stuff Dan ! :clap:

 

[juggernaut]

yea great discovery mann

"keep up the good work"

 

[jonah]

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

 

[danread]

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.

 

[danread]

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,