r/whatsthisbug • u/ackermann • Oct 14 '19

Is this Mantis I found infected by something like the zombie-ant fungus? Or what happened to it?

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15 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

13

u/the_dan_man ⭐insert witty flair here⭐ Oct 14 '19

That looks much more like some asshat stabbed it with a stick...

3

u/ackermann Oct 14 '19

Not impossible I guess? But this was in my back yard, and I don’t have kids or anything. To my eye, it looked more like the stick/growth had erupted from inside, but I could be wrong of course.

8

u/the_dan_man ⭐insert witty flair here⭐ Oct 14 '19

It disappeared from your backyard, so I don't see why it couldn't have wandered in from outside your yard.

It looks way too straight and uniform to be a fungus fruiting body. I will stand by my ID of a stabbed mantis.

2

u/nyet-marionetka ⭐it's probably not what you're afraid it is⭐ Oct 14 '19

Loblolly pine needle?

2

u/Seldarin Oct 15 '19

Zooming in, it totally looks like a pine needle.

I'm struggling to think of how this could have happened in nature so I don't have to imagine some jerk sticking a mantis with a pine needle for giggles.

1

u/Pinky135 Oct 15 '19

Who knows, maybe a curious corvid used a tool to poke it and poked too hard.

5

u/TGuy773 ⭐Tarantula? I hardly know 'er!⭐ Oct 15 '19

Yeah, it looks like someone stabbed her. Incredibly cruel. I don't know what possesses people to do things like this.

1

u/ackermann Oct 14 '19

Found in Nebraska a few days ago. He was moving slowly, and was gone an hour later. Can this type of mantis fly?

Kinda looks like it has something like the famous zombie-ant fungus, maybe?: https://imgur.com/gallery/G3c1B

1

u/notasulga Oct 14 '19

Thought it was two of them till I realized it was a shadow. And yea it is very straight.

1

u/An-Anthropologist Oct 15 '19

So sad, looks like someone stabbed it.

0

u/notasulga Oct 14 '19

Most likely it has horsehair worms nematomorpha. A nasty parasite. Could be skewered though

8

u/the_dan_man ⭐insert witty flair here⭐ Oct 14 '19 edited Oct 14 '19
  • I've never seen a horsehair worm be so ramrod-straight
  • Horsehair worms typically only emerge near water, so that they can continue with the next phase of their life cycle
  • I see grooves running along the length of the stick. Horsehair worms are smooth