Insects are the largest class of invertebrate animals on the planet, with more than a million species. Of course, without them, life on Earth is impossible, but a huge number of insects lead a parasitic lifestyle, with which humanity has been at war since time immemorial.
There are also insects that are safe for us, but dangerous for animals, but mostly parasites are not selective.
What to do in such a situation? To get started, we recommend reading this article. This article describes in detail methods of controlling parasites. We also recommend that you consult a specialist. Read the article >>>
Types of insect parasites
Parasites differ from symbioses by the complete opposite - they simply kill the host organism that gives them life. Why nature arranges it this way is not clear, apparently population regulation.
Parasites worsen the overall well-being of the animal and can also transmit an infectious disease.
Conventionally, they can be divided into 2 types – endoparasites and ectoparasites. The former live inside the body (worms, larvae), developing until the end of a certain cycle, the latter only damage the skin surface (blood-sucking). Ectoparasites are in a sense more pleasant - they drank blood and flew away (as a rule, these are female individuals, and blood is not necessary for them, but for their offspring), but endoparasites can live for a month or two both under the skin of the animal and in the internal organs , like the stomach and large intestine. Gadfly larvae even prefer to spend the entire winter under the host's skin.
Ophion luteus
Got it in my head. How parasites control the behavior of their hosts
Fortunately, in most cases, the effects of Toxoplasma are limited to slower reactions and persistent worsening of mood. The biological meaning of the first is simple: a slow animal is easier for a predator to catch. The second is more difficult to explain. This is probably a “side effect” of Toxoplasma that appears in humans simply because it is the easiest way for us to observe its manifestations.
However, no one died directly from irritability, but from not responding quickly enough, quite sure. Where does a modern person most often have to show attentiveness and efficiency? That's right, on the road. You've probably read crime reports with phrases like "the driver lost control." Typically, this means that he did not react quickly enough to something. And there is a suspicion that toxoplasma is the cause of the slowness of some road users.
In 2021, employees of the First Moscow State Medical University named after.
THEM. Sechenov and the Moscow City Research Institute of Emergency Medicine named after N.V. Sklifosovsky examined 252 drivers, 100 of whom were involved in an accident due to their own fault. Of these hundred, toxoplasma was found in the blood of 45 people, that is, almost half of those examined, and among those 152 who simply came for a routine medical examination, it was found in only a quarter. This suggests that the presence of Toxoplasma gondii in the body negatively affects a person’s attention and reaction speed. The authors of the work themselves attribute its influence to the fact that toxoplasma is capable of changing the intensity of the release of dopamine, a neurotransmitter that regulates both movements and positive emotions. Mushroom puppeteers
Other notable parasites are mushrooms. Their cells are very similar in structure to animal cells, so it can be difficult to get rid of them: you need to find a remedy that would act on the cells of the fungi, but would not affect the cells of the animal itself. Despite this similarity, mushrooms - and according to the modern classification this is a large and complex group - have a number of biochemical “superpowers” that allow them to synthesize a wide range of substances that affect the nervous system.
For example, the “fly mushroom”, Entomophthora muscae, greatly changes the behavior of its victims and almost immediately sends out shoots into neurons, but until the death of the flies it does not significantly change the structure of their nervous system. This was discovered last year by experts from the University of California at Berkeley. They infected laboratory fruit flies with entomophthora and killed groups of flies every few hours to see what their organs looked like in sections and to find out how the activity of various enzymes and the intensity of biochemical reactions in their tissues changed.
Red mites
Red mites have a plump, furry, cushion-like body and an eye-catching red coloration. As you might guess, with such a charming appearance, these mites have a rather disgusting taste.
Although these mites become active predators as adults, their larvae quietly parasitize other insects. Red mite larvae have many hosts, but, for example, in India they try to stick to crickets.
Extracts from ticks are used in Eastern medicine to treat male infertility and paralysis. Scientific studies have shown that various body parts of red mites have antifungal and antibacterial properties. Red mite larva parasitizing a moth.
Parasitic insects: rider wasp
Parasitic insects of the family Ichneumonidae
got their name because of their resemblance to the mystical creature ichneumon, which was supposedly the sworn enemy of dragons.
Wasp of the family Ichneumonidae
"Ichnemon"
translated from Greek means
a hunter tracking down wild animals
.
This name is most suitable for a wasp from another family - Braconidae
. Interestingly, a wasp can be trained to detect many subtle odors, such as the smell of explosives or drugs. Surprisingly, these creatures learn much faster and easier than bloodhounds!
A caterpillar with wasp larvae parasitizing on it
Moreover, these parasitic wasps are not capable of stinging a person, and also require a very simple diet - sweet water.
The process of laying eggs in the bodies of other insects
Ants are parasites
There are certain types of ants that are social parasites. They destroy the nests of carpenter ants
, and the surviving worker ants are turned into their slaves.
After the mating flight, the queens of these ants may end up in the nest of carpenter ants and drive out the queen living there.
These ants, which are called "medicine ants"
, have been used in China and Taiwan as ingredients for medicines for thousands of years. Research shows that extracts from the body of ants have strong analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects.
Cochineal mealybug
- an insect that lives on
prickly pear cacti
. The peculiarity of this insect is that it is processed to produce cochineal dye.
Exports of cochineal were second only to silver in the Spanish colonies of the New World. Spain went through a serious financial crisis when synthetic dyes were invented, because most of the cochineal production enterprises went bankrupt.
Today, the production of natural dyes is being revived, and there is renewed interest in cochineal, as it is an excellent natural substitute for food dyes based on coal or gasoline byproducts.
Bedbugs are harmful blood suckers
Bed bugs belong to the group of blood suckers and can cause significant harm to humans. The insect is easy to recognize by its characteristic features:
- body length ranges from 4 to 8 mm;
- shell color – light yellow or dark brown;
- active after dark;
- the only food product is blood.
Parasites live on average up to one year. You can easily find them in old pillows, mattresses, as well as between floorboards, under linoleum, wallpaper or baseboards. Bedbugs leave bites on the human body. In general, they are not dangerous, but can cause allergic reactions.
Bed bug
Insects – parasites of humans and domestic animals
This category includes blood-sucking insects - fleas, lice and bedbugs. Their stay in the house is due to their proximity to food sources: humans and pets, primarily dogs and cats. As the name implies, blood-sucking parasites feed on blood and, during a bite, transmit pathogenic viruses and bacteria to the victim.
Bed bugs
These human parasitic insects live in hard-to-reach places: under the upholstery of chairs and sofas, in closets, crevices and niches. They become active in the dark, inflicting numerous bites on a sleeping person. Scientists consider bedbugs to be potential carriers of diseases such as:
- tuberculosis;
- tularemia;
- brucellosis;
- Hepatitis B.
Other unpleasant consequences of bedbug attacks include sleep disturbance and itchy skin sores, which often cause infectious and allergic dermatitis.
Fleas
Representatives of this group are perhaps the most famous insect parasites of animals. The sources of fleas in houses and apartments are cats, dogs, rodents and birds living near people. The habitat for fleas is secluded and safe places: cracks. niches, upholstered furniture, space under the wallpaper. In addition to painful bites, fleas are dangerous to humans and animals as carriers of a whole “bouquet” of infections: from hepatitis and encephalitis to plague and brucellosis.
Lice
Head lice live among the hair on the human body, so in the literal sense they cannot be called domestic parasitic insects. This definition applies more to body lice, which inhabit the folds and seams of linen and clothing. Both lice feed on human blood, and their bites cause painful itching and irritation on the skin. Head lice are less dangerous, while body lice are carriers of a serious disease - typhus.
To combat blood-sucking parasitic insects, an extensive arsenal of means is used: medicines, insecticides and heat treatment methods.
Harmless house insects
Some insects live under the same roof as humans and do virtually no harm to them. These “neighbors” include silverfish - white transparent parasitic household insects that are most often found in bathrooms and bathrooms. Silverfish are not dangerous for people and pets. The only harm it can do is spoil sugar-containing products and eat wallpaper paste.
Millipedes are also harmless household insects. They settle in damp, warm corners of the house and become more active in the spring and summer. Despite their repulsive appearance, centipedes are not dangerous to humans. On the contrary, they are beneficial because they hunt small insects living in the house.
Silverfish and millipedes are almost never specifically destroyed; they are usually disposed of through an insecticidal treatment aimed against parasitic insects.
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Domestic bloodsuckers - mosquitoes
Having a clear understanding of what kind of domestic insects exist in the apartment (the photos and names below will simplify the task of recognition), you can quickly find your bearings when meeting with representatives of different groups to develop a plan to combat and prevent their appearance.
The mosquito, for example, also belongs to the group of blood-sucking mosquitoes and is found in almost everyone’s home with the onset of warm days. The insect has a body length of up to 7 mm, most often distinguished by a yellow color.
Female mosquitoes drink human blood and also do not disdain plant juice; males feed exclusively on plant juice.
The average female mosquito lives on average from 43 to 57 days. Life expectancy is affected by temperature and humidity, but most of all by the availability of power sources. The male lives no more than 19 days.
Considering that female mosquitoes feed on human blood, they can be considered pests. Insects can cause infection with malaria, meningitis, yellow fever and other diseases.
Insects are pests of cultivated plants and carriers of human diseases
Since man began to grow plants, sowing large areas with one crop, insects that feed on plants have had the opportunity to reproduce en masse. This is how complexes of insect pests of grain, cruciferous, nightshade and other plants developed.
bread bugs causes significant damage to grain crops
.
Turtles pierce young juicy grains with their proboscis, inject saliva into them, which dissolves gluten, and suck out the contents. As a result, only a wrinkled shell remains of the grain, and the ear becomes white. Bedbugs lay eggs on the leaves of cereals. The emerging larvae first suck the juices of the leaves, and then switch to feeding on grain
.
Among butterflies there are many pests of vegetable crops. For example, turnips, cabbage whites
, damaging cabbage and other cruciferous crops.
The upper surface of the wings of the cabbage white is powdery white with dark corners and two dark spots in females. Whitefish caterpillars are greenish in color with black dots and yellow stripes. They are very gluttonous. First, they scrape off the pulp of the cabbage leaves and then gnaw holes in the leaves. Older caterpillars eat cabbage
so that only the veins remain of the leaves.
Damages cabbage and cabbage cutworm
. Her butterflies fly at night in midsummer. Females lay up to 2000 eggs. The caterpillars feed and develop for about 50 days. First, they damage the leaves on the surface of the head of cabbage, and then make passages inside, clogging the head of cabbage with excrement. Damaged heads of cabbage are poorly stored and rot. In addition to cabbage, the cabbage cutworm damages onions, peas, flax, and gladioli.
Colorado potato beetle
- the most dangerous
pest of potatoes
.
It also damages tomatoes, eggplants and other nightshade plants. The beetle's homeland is North America. At the end of the First World War, it was brought to Western Europe, and has now spread throughout Europe to the Urals. An adult beetle has a brownish-yellow color and a convex shape. The yellow elytra have ten black longitudinal stripes. It is capable of multiplying quickly. Under good weather conditions, two or three generations of the pest can develop within a year. The beetles actively feed, then lay 25–30 bright orange eggs on the lower surface of the leaves. After 5–15 days, red larvae
. They intensively gnaw leaves and after two to three weeks move into the soil to pupate and become sexually mature individuals. The emerging young beetles feed again and go into the soil for the winter. In spring, they do not emerge at the same time, so the development and feeding of larvae and beetles continues throughout the season and leads to severe damage to plants.
, click beetles cause great damage to various agricultural plants.
.
The larvae of click beetles
-
wireworms
- have an elongated, highly chitinized solid body. They live in the soil for about four years. They feed on underground parts of plants, damaging roots, tubers, and rhizomes.
In orchards, the most numerous and harmful are aphids (from the order Homoptera), the apple flower beetle (from the order Coleoptera), and the codling moth (from the order Lepidoptera). In total, more than a thousand species of harmful insects are found in gardens.
Aphids
They have
piercing-sucking mouthparts
and feed on
plant juices
. They cause a deterioration in the normal nutrition and development of plants, and their drying out.
Apple blossom beetle
can be found in gardens in early spring.
Beetles damage flower buds
. They gnaw holes in them and lay eggs inside, where larvae develop, feeding on the pistils and stamens. The sticky secretions of the larvae stick together the petals of the bud, so the buds do not open and the petals turn brown. Inside the bud, the larva pupates, and a beetle emerges from the pupa, damaging the fruit.
An apple tree, and less often a pear, is damaged by the codling moth
, causing
“wormy” fruits
. The butterfly lays eggs on leaves and fruits. The caterpillar overwinters in a cocoon under the bark in the lower part of the trunk of an apple tree, on the surface of the soil in orchards. The caterpillars penetrate the fruit to the seeds, eat them, and litter the fruit with excrement. Damaged fruits do not grow and fall off.
Insects can cause harm to humans and pets
a wide variety of damage - from simple anxiety to infection with dangerous diseases.
The human louse parasitizes humans
.
Lice, parasitic on the body and scalp, cause itching, disrupt sleep, and interfere with a person’s work activity
.
The female lays up to 300 eggs during her life, which she glues to her hair and threads of clothing. Lice eggs are elongated, oval, whitish-yellow, they are called nits
. The egg develops into a larva, which goes through several instars and turns into an adult. Two or three times a day, the louse sucks the host's blood. Lice live for about 38 days. The saliva of these insects is toxic and may contain pathogens of various diseases, such as typhus.
Bites irritate the skin and cause itching. The parasitism of lice on humans is called pediculosis.
.
The main measure to prevent head lice is following the rules of personal hygiene.
Bed bugs, fleas, blood-sucking mosquitoes, horseflies, and midges have a similar effect on
Sometimes the secretion of the salivary glands of these insects causes
allergies
.
Particularly dangerous are insects that carry pathogens that cause diseases in humans and animals
.
They can carry various infectious diseases
-
sleeping sickness and malaria, typhoid fever and dysentery, anthrax and plague
.
Bed bug
found in human homes all over the globe. A proboscis extends from the anterior edge of the head, adapted for piercing tissue and sucking blood. Bed bugs usually attack people at night and suck blood, and they spend the day in shelters - behind wallpaper, in furniture.
Fleas
-
wingless insects
.
They move mainly by jumping
.
They jump 50 centimeters in length and 30 up, having a body length of only 3-4 millimeters. Fleas feed on blood and
have
piercing-sucking mouthparts
.
While feeding, a flea can transmit pathogens of various diseases to its owner. Among them, the most dangerous is the plague
. In Europe, the plague killed 25 million people in the Middle Ages, and 75 million worldwide.
Mosquitoes
inhabit all continents except Antarctica.
Females feed on the blood of animals and humans.
Before the female begins to drink blood, she injects saliva into the skin of her victim, which causes itching, swelling and redness at the site of the bite, and in some cases, a severe allergic reaction.
Mosquitoes are carriers of dangerous diseases
such as
malaria
.
Horseflies
look like large flies.
Their bites are very painful. Toxic substances in saliva lead to redness and painful swelling of the skin. Horseflies are also carriers of dangerous diseases - anthrax, tularemia
and others.
House flies
distributed throughout the globe.
Females measure about 7 millimeters. The body and legs are dark in color and covered with hairs. The legs have claws and sticky pads that allow flies to move on any surface. Contacting with sewage and household waste, they contaminate food, spread typhoid fever pathogens, dysentery amoeba cysts, and eggs of parasitic worms.
The same role can be played by cockroaches, ants, green flies and other insects that live in and near a person’s home.
To prevent infection of humans and animals, it is necessary to combat vectors of pathogens.
The spread of intestinal infections will be prevented by the fight against flies and other insects living near humans. To prevent the spread of malaria, mosquito breeding sites are destroyed - small forest puddles and swampy reservoirs are drained, and fish that eat aquatic mosquito larvae and pupae are bred in ponds. To prevent an epidemic of typhus, you should follow the rules of personal hygiene and fight lice. It is also necessary to maintain cleanliness in living areas.
Insect pests
Woodworms are furniture pests that lay eggs in recesses and small cracks. In three years, the larva grows into an adult. They make passages in the wood where they live.
Most often, only the secondary signs of this insect's presence are noticeable - small holes, mounds of sawdust, damaged wooden furniture.
Human life is connected with living nature, and insects are part of it. This neighborhood has been going on since time immemorial. People have even managed to domesticate some insects. For ants, there are special farms for raising them in apartments - formicariums.
Cockroaches are the most frequent “guests” in the house
Analyzing which insects at home can disturb peace and comfort, it is difficult to forget about cockroaches. Everyone has encountered their neighborhood at least once in their life. Insects belong to the category of harmful domestic insects, which, like the previous representatives of this group, lead an active nocturnal lifestyle. The body size of the cockroach does not exceed 9.5 cm. The color is predominantly yellow-brown or dark.
Pests choose all kinds of food scraps as a source of food and do not disdain feces. An adult lives for about 30 weeks in secluded places, out of sight of humans. Most often these are holes between the floor and the baseboard, cabinets and chests, old suitcases, etc.
Pests cause damage to indoor plants, furniture, food, are capable of spreading dangerous infections and cause the development of helminths.
Order of bedbugs or heteroptera
The bugs that affect humans feed on blood. There are two types of them: the bed bug and the romantically named “kissing” bug.
A bed bug is about 0.5 cm in size, a well-fed bug is slightly less than 1 centimeter, females are always larger than males. When the bug is hungry, it is light brown or red in color. If the bug has just had its fill, it not only changes color to dark brown or black, it also changes the shape of its body. The body of the parasite becomes oval and elongated. The bug also has its own specific bright smell.
These insects form a separate order, which is called Bedbugs.
During the daytime, they sit out in dark and secluded places. Favorite hiding places for bedbugs are cracks in the floor and furniture. At night they behave like mythical vampires - they attack a person or animal and drink their blood!
The hungriest bugs do not wait for the night; they attack during the day.
Like cockroaches, the female bedbug lays eggs, she does this in furniture or bedding. After two to three weeks, the warmer it is, the faster the larvae will emerge; they are already hungry and want to be satisfied with the blood of a healthy person or animal. They mature after several stages of molting, turning into an adult or, scientifically, an imago. In the stage of “waiting” for a host, larvae and adults are capable of starving for several months. The bite of this parasite is painful because its saliva contains poison! As a result, a person's sleep is disturbed. There has never been a single case in medicine where a bedbug transmitted any disease or infection to a person.
To get rid of these bugs, you need to use an insecticide, and you also need to fight mice and rats, which are their donors.
Another parasite, the kissing bug, does not behave at all romantically, contrary to its name. It is dangerous because it spreads the dangerous tropical disease Chagas. The bedbug is much larger than its bed bug counterpart. Its dimensions range from one and a half to four centimeters. The same flat oval body has developed wings. It lives in rat and other burrows, as well as in clay buildings and human huts.
These are terrestrial or aquatic insects, whose bodies are most often moderately flattened
Just like the previous type of bug, it hunts prey at night, inserting its trunk into the skin of the hands, neck or near the mouth. Once saturated with blood, it turns 180° and defecates there. The parasite's feces contain trypanosomes (the causative agent of Chagas disease), which remain in the wound, causing severe illness in humans. In addition to diseases, a person may have a severe allergy attack to saliva, including asthma.
The main measure against bedbugs is effective antiparasitic insecticidal agents, as well as housing built according to a modern type.
Types and feeding habits of moths
Domestic butterflies reveal themselves immediately when they appear. They circle in different rooms, depending on where the offspring are laid. There are several types of moths:
- wardrobe (lives in closets);
- fur coat (feeds on natural fibers of fur clothing);
- furniture (occupies furniture upholstery);
- food (spoils groceries).
The adult individual looks inconspicuous. Its color varies depending on the species (milky, brown, gray), and its size is small. Butterflies are characterized by the absence of a digestive system (it is underdeveloped), which does not allow them to feed, which means that only pest larvae spoil food and things. These are light-colored caterpillars that develop in the same place where they feed. They form a little cover around themselves; when moving, it moves along with the caterpillar.
The main function of adults is reproduction. The moth lays eggs and then dies. The larvae appear after 2 weeks and begin to actively destroy furniture and food. However, this does not mean that there is no need to breed adults. On the contrary, the sooner they disappear, the fewer larvae will appear in the future. Moths that live in food are more difficult to control, since this eliminates the possibility of using chemical insecticides. You can only process the cabinets.
4.Mole
This small butterfly is also a garden pest. It attacks the leaves of young plants. Gardeners count many types of moths: grape, currant, raspberry, apple, cabbage, ermine, miner, circle, fruit, crumb and baby. These insects lay eggs on leaves, which are completely eaten by the caterpillars that hatch from them. This causes enormous harm to plants and reduces their fertility. With a large concentration of moths, crop loss can be 60%.
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Read further:
Domestic insect parasites: photos and names, control methods
No to ticks: where to order insect repellent treatment?
What do mosquitoes eat, besides blood, females and males, in the swamp and in nature?
Coliform bacteria in food: what they are and the reasons for their appearance
Centipede mosquito. Description, stages of development. What do big mosquitoes eat? Whether they bite or not. Damage from long-legged mosquitoes
Types of worms in cats: photo, description, name and methods of control and treatment
Insects that parasitize animals
Poultry eaters are a real scourge of poultry and livestock farms. Parasites
The undercoat or fluff is trimmed, exposing large areas of skin. They feed on the upper layer of the epidermis, causing severe itching and weight loss in poultry and animals.
Three types of parasites: lice, bedbugs and fleas feed on the blood of animals and birds. Most bedbugs and fleas visit their hosts only while feeding, living on the dirt floor or in cracks. These species easily penetrate human habitation, transferring pathogens from animals to humans. Fleas, for example, are carriers of plague.
Botflies harm cattle and sheep. Females lay larvae under the skin of animals (usually in the leg area). During development, the larva moves under the skin, reaching the back. An abscess and fistula form here. The adult larva climbs out through the damaged skin and falls to the ground, where it continues to develop.
If the animal managed to gnaw the larva out of the skin with its teeth (this is what horses do), it completes its development in the stomach and then comes out along with feces.
Bibliography
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Brucellosis. Parasites. Link
- Corbel MJ Parasitic diseases // World Health Organization. Link
- Young EJ Best matches for intestinal parasites // Clinical Infectious Diseases. — 1995. Vol. 21. - P. 283-290. Link
- Yushchuk N.D., Vengerov Yu.A. Infectious diseases: textbook. — 2nd edition. - M.: Medicine, 2003. - 544 p.
- Prevalence of parasitic diseases among the population, 2009 / Kokolova L. M., Reshetnikov A. D., Platonov T. A., Verkhovtseva L. A.
- Helminths of domestic carnivores of the Voronezh region, 2011 / Nikulin P. I., Romashov B. V.
An article for patients with a doctor-diagnosed disease. Does not replace a doctor's appointment and cannot be used for self-diagnosis.
The best stories from our readers
Topic: Parasites are to blame for all troubles!
From: Lyudmila S. ()
To: Administration Noparasites.ru
Not long ago my health condition worsened. I began to feel constant fatigue, headaches, laziness and some kind of endless apathy appeared. Problems also appeared with the gastrointestinal tract: bloating, diarrhea, pain and bad breath.
I thought it was because of the hard work and hoped that it would go away on its own. But every day I felt worse. The doctors couldn’t really say anything either. Everything seems to be normal, but I feel like my body is not healthy.
I decided to go to a private clinic. Here I was advised, in addition to general tests, to get tested for parasites. So in one of the tests they found parasites in me. According to doctors, these were worms, which 90% of people have and almost everyone is infected, to a greater or lesser extent.
I was prescribed a course of antiparasitic medications. But it didn’t give me any results. A week later, a friend sent me a link to an article where some parasitologist shared real tips on fighting parasites. This article literally saved my life. I followed all the advice that was there and after a couple of days I felt much better!
Digestion improved, headaches went away and the vital energy that I so lacked appeared. To be sure, I took the tests again and no parasites were found!
Anyone who wants to cleanse their body of parasites, no matter what types of these creatures live in you, read this article, I’m 100% sure it will help you! Go to article>>>
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Through chitinous armor
Parasites can enter the insect's body in two main ways - through the intestines and the cuticle, and these paths differ fundamentally only in the first stages.
To open a kind of chitinous “safe,” many parasites use chemical “tools”—hydrolytic enzymes that destroy the structural components of insect integument. In addition, parasites can synthesize a number of chemical compounds ( toxins
), which are able to penetrate the cuticle and inhibit some physiological functions of the host, including the functioning of the immune system.
In any case, upon penetration of the parasite, not only the acellular cover itself is damaged, but also the epidermal cells underlying the cuticle. And this already has the most serious consequences. Hemocytes rush to the site of parasite penetration
– blood cells, among which there are so-called
immunocompetent cells
, which immediately try to absorb the parasite. If this fails due to the large number or large size of infectious agents, hemocytes sacrifice themselves: they are partially or completely destroyed. Some components of dead cells are a kind of signal for other types of hemocytes, which also rush to the site of foreign invasion.
In nature, highly virulent species are not often found among parasites: in many cases, it is simply unprofitable for the parasite to kill its host. However, in the endless war that insects wage with their parasitic environment, they suffer many losses
At the same time, enzymes that trigger melanogenesis
, i.e. the process of formation of the substance
melanin
.
The latter is a high-molecular pigment of black or dark brown color, widespread in the living world (from bacteria and plants to animals). The key enzymes of melanogenesis in insects are phenoloxidases
, which are “stored” in an inactive form in the cuticle, in blood cells and in lymph.
A significant role in the activation of enzymes is played by various pattern recognition proteins
(PRs), which are capable of binding to certain substances that are part of gram-negative bacterial and fungal cells. These proteins are similar to those involved in the immune system of vertebrates.
During the synthesis of melanin in response to parasitic intervention, a cascade of chemical reactions occurs, resulting in the formation of a large number of diverse compounds with high reactivity. They can directly affect the parasite, causing its death
For insects, melanin is a truly universal substance: being part of the cuticle, it not only determines its color, but also serves as a structural component along with sclerotin, its close “relative”. Melanin has another important property: it is capable of forming a kind of pigment sheath around a parasite that has penetrated into the body cavity of insects. And if we take into account that, as a polymer, melanin is characterized by high mechanical strength, then the parasite enclosed in such a shell ends up completely isolated.
In addition, the formation of melanin produces a large number of highly reactive compounds, including orthoquinones and semiquinone radicals, which, when interacting with oxygen, can form a spectrum of other radicals (Nappi et al.
, 2000). The process of melanization is accompanied by the generation of the well-known hydrogen peroxide, which can also lead to the emergence of highly reactive compounds (for example, hydroxyl radical). All these substances are capable of directly destroying the parasite both during its penetration into the body and during the formation of the capsule.
It should be noted that the above compounds are not specific and can destroy any cells, including those of your own body. To prevent their harmful effects, special systems are formed in the body of insects that detoxify (neutralize) highly reactive compounds of melanogenesis. At the same time, they also participate in the detoxification of parasite metabolites.
The nature of activation
detoxifying
and
antioxidant
systems depends on the type of parasite and the stage of development of the insect itself.
New additional isoforms (variants) of esterases
—detoxifying enzymes—begin to appear in the blood of insects. This process is apparently universal: a similar phenomenon was previously recorded when insects were exposed to sudden hypothermia, as well as when they were treated with various insecticides.
Thus, when a parasite penetrates into the insect’s body, it is under a kind of pressure from various systems. And although the protective systems of insects can prevent intoxication of the body and in some cases lead to recovery, overactivity of any of them can lead to the death of the insect itself.
In particular, the formation of large quantities of highly reactive compounds is accompanied by damage to the tissues and cells of one’s own body. Conversely, increased activity of the antioxidant system leads to inhibition of the defense system. In addition, in this case, significant dysfunction of a number of organs may occur, since a certain amount of highly reactive compounds is necessary for the normal functioning of cells.
