Worms crawling out of darkling beetle

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draconisj4

L1
Sorry I don't know the scientific name of this beetle but I'm new to keeping inverts. I noticed that small white larva were crawling out of my female beetle's rear end. Since I know they lay eggs I'm assuming that it's some kind of parasite. Does anyone know what this may be? There were 2 in the water dish and at least 2 got into the substrate before I isolated her. Photo attached, I couldn't get any closer with my camera, there is a larva behind her, they are about 1/4" long.DSC00407 (2).JPG

 
Definitely looks like some sort of parasite, possibly some sort of Dipteran, sorry to say so, but your darkling beetle is almost certainly a gonner. I don't have much experience with Tenebrionid parasites, or beetle parasites in general, someone on Bugguide.net may be able to help though.

 
Had the same thing happen with one of my darklings recently -- tis the season, I guess. I only saw one larva emerge from my beetle, and shortly after it died. Hopefully there aren't any other parasites in my tank, but I keep the tank dry so I don't think they'd live in the sand substrate.

 
The beetle is still alive this morning,active, eating a piece of carrot and drinking a lot of water. Eight more larva emerged, but only one overnight. They do appear to be some kind of maggot as far as I can tell. I've had this beetle less than a week so hopefully it was infected elsewhere. I have a dry tank also, but since I know some got into the substrate I'm not going to take any chances and going to do a complete substrate change.

 
It was probably already infected when you got it, WC specimens of any animal could always be infested with any manner of parasites or pathogens. My guess is that those larvae have finished feeding on the beetle and are looking to pupate, once all the larvae have left I'm guessing the beetle will die.
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Are you going to raise up any of the larvae? It would be interesting to see what they become . . . and then put the container in the freezer.

Good luck with your darkling!

 
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Well, my beetle is dying today, poor little bugger. The rest of it's tankmates so far appear to be ok, but I'll be keeping an eye on them.

By the time I thought about raising those larvae just to see what they were, I had already destroyed them. I have a serious dislike of critters that eat my pets from the inside. RIP little darkling. Funny how you can get so attached to a small insect.

 
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I had the same thing happen to one of my Eleodes longicollis last fall and they turned out to be Braconid Wasps.

 
I Fox said:
I had the same thing happen to one of my Eleodes longicollis last fall and they turned out to be Braconid Wasps.
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Whoa! I had one of those stuck to a little fly trap above my darkling tank a while ago and had no idea what it was! I figured it came in through the screen door, but now I wonder if it came from one of my wild-caught beetles -- every once in a while one croaks, of course, but I'd never seen larvae emerging from a live beetle until recently. That's crazy.

 
Just lost a female BDF to a Braconid parasitoid larva. Interesting that it's been one year from posts above noting similar Teneb losses. Those mated Braconid gals are small, sneaky and quite lethal.

 
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