Feeding behavior of Acheta domesticus infected with Paragordius varius

Abstract

There has not been a lot of research on the phylum nematomorpha, hairworms. There is a large gap in the knowledge of hairworms in their host-parasite relationship, especially on their dietary habits. Our study observed the food consumption of house crickets (Acheta domesticus) by hairworms (Paragordius varius). We recorded the mass of the amount of food consumed by the crickets every five days. Our study did not identify a difference between crickets exposed to hairworms and those not exposed but this may be due to unexpected deaths of the crickets and a small sample size of infected crickets further research needs to be conducted to determine if the food consumption of crickets infected with hairworms differs from uninfected crickets.