Host penetration behavior of the first-instar larva of the strepsipteran Blissoxenos esakii

(22.0MB, 00:01:03)
Shot Date: 2023/07/19
Shot Location: Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan

* species
Blissoxenos esakii

Key Words
Strepsiptera
parasite
wave
penetration


Shigeyuki Koshikawea
2026/01/23 submitted



Animalia >Arthropoda >Insecta >Strepsiptera >Corioxenidae >Blissoxenos >

A first-instar larva of a strepsipteran (Blissoxenos esakii) penetrates the body of a heteropteran host (Macropes obnubilus) through the abdomen while producing forward-propagating abdominal contraction waves. The movie is shown at 128× speed. Filming and editing were done by Hayato Kanto.

Below is the abstract from the article containing this video:



Endoparasitic animals must penetrate their hosts to survive. When actively entering a host, they are expected to employbody movements different from those used when searching for hosts on land or in water. However, the body movementsused during penetration have rarely been documented, and the mechanisms by which endoparasites accomplish host pen-etration remain largely unknown. In Strepsiptera (Insecta), tiny first-instar larvae both search for and penetrate their hosts,but the mechanisms of penetration are poorly understood. Here, we observed the body movements of first-instar larvae of Blissoxenos esakii during host penetration. We found that larvae penetrate the host while producing forward-propagatingabdominal contraction waves, a movement not observed during walking on land. This study provides the first video-baseddocumentation and analysis of host penetration by first-instar strepsipteran larvae and offers new insights into the mecha-nisms underlying host penetration in endoparasitic insects. Digital video images related to the article are available at http://www.momo-p.com/showdetail-e.php?movieid=momo251217be01a.

Hayato Kanto, Yuta Nakase, and Shigeyuki Koshikawa (2026) Body movements of the first-instar larva of the endoparasitic insect Blissoxenos esakii (Insecta: Strepsiptera) during host penetration. J. Ethol. 10.1007/s10164-025-00884-2

(Data No.momo251217be01a)

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