Before it gets into a cricket, this parasite starts out as an egg that hatches into a free-swimming larva, which then needs to infect an aquatic invertebrate, such as a snail or mosquito larva, to reach its next stage of development as a cyst. Using anterior stylets and posterior spines, a larva penetrates the gut of a paratenic host. But the hairworm has a complex life cycle and the cricket is not the only host that it infects throughout its life.
A preparasitic hairworm larva ready to hatch from its egg. Hairworms mate and oviposit in freshwater. 6:30 AM Absurd Creature of the Week: The Parasitic Worm That Turns Crickets Into Suicidal Maniacs The some 350 known species of horsehair worms invade insects. varius would normally allow itself to freeze for the sake of its survival, they can also be made to freeze in the name of science. Hairworm adults emerge from an insect host (Orthoptera). In another type of interaction, called bodyguard manipulation, the parasite forces the infected insect to guard its young. The cricket’s suicide enables the worms to enter an aquatic environment for reproduction. varius, all the scientists have to do is pop them into deep freeze and put the parasite’s life on hold until suitable hosts (or funding) become available to continue working on them. Similarly, a parasitic hairworm causes infected crickets to seek out water where they drown. If you want to start up a lab colony by collecting a starting population from the field, just when various stages of the parasite might be available for collection out in the field, the suitable hosts might be scarce or absent.
You have to maintain colonies of many different critters (potential hosts to “sacrifice” to the parasites) to keep the life cycle going. Usually, doing lab-based experiments on parasites like the hairworms, which infect different species of hosts throughout its life cycle, is a logistical hardship. While the hairworm’s tolerance for deep freezing allows it to complete its life cycle regardless of seasonal changes, this is also a boon for scientists who study them.
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