I just thought I'd share this image of a rather unusual find. I captured an earwig and kept it for a few days. It seemed to do fine until I found it dead one day. That's when I noticed something else in the jar - a roundworm.
A great number of internet sources mention that Earwigs are attacked by "two fly parasites, a roundworm parasite and a fungal disease" - but very few go on to specify the species involved.
Only after a long search did I find this article (
here) which lists this parasite as a
Mermis micronigrescens. Further internet searches came up with
M. nigrescens, a grasshopper parasite. I'm not particularly interested in worms, just wanting to find out the name of this parasite.
Contributed by
Stephen Luk on 10 August, 2007 - 3:08pm
Last updated 7 December, 2007 - 12:28pm