Nymph (zoology)

Adults and nymphs of the common fire bug . In the smaller nymphs the black wing systems are recognizable

Stages of development of a tick: protonymph, nymph, adult animal

As nymphs juvenile stages are different arthropods called that, unlike larvae , external to the adult stage are very similar. Nymphs are found, for example, in hemimetabolic insects , where they differ from the fully developed insect ( Imagino ), among other things, in that their wings and / or genital organs are still incompletely developed .

Also in arachnids , especially in spiders and mites such as the common wood tick , the nymph is the most common juvenile form . In the case of winged insects, the term nymph is often only used from the first fully developed stage with developed wing systems , usually after the third molt. Previous stages are called the pronymph . In mites, the youngest stages are called protonymphs .

If a mother animal is infected with borreliosis pathogens in ticks , the pathogens are transmitted via the eggs to the nymphs that hatch from them, so that the nymphs, which fall off again just a few days after their blood meal, can infect their host with borreliosis.

Web links

Commons : Nymphs (Biology)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

supporting documents

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Nymph. In: Herder-Lexikon der Biologie. Spektrum Akademischer Verlag, Heidelberg 2003, ISBN 3-8274-0354-5 .