Mansonella ozzardi lifecycle

During a blood meal, an infected anthropod (midges, genus Culicoides, or blackflies, genus Simulium) introduces third-stage filarial larvae onto the skin of the human host, where they penetrate into the bite wound (1). They develop into adults that commonly reside in subcutaneous tissues (2). Adult worms are rarely found in humans. The size range for female worms is 65 to 81 mm in length and 0.21 and 0.25 mm in diameter but unknown for males. Adult worms recovered from experimentally infected Patas monkeys measured 24 to 28 mm in length and 70 to 80 micrometers in diameter (males) and 32 to 62 mm in length and 0.13 to 0.16 mm in diameter (females). Adults produce unsheathed and nonperiodic microfilariae that reach the blood stream (3). The arthropod ingests microfilariae during a blood meal (4). After ingestion, the microfilariae migrate from the arthropod's midgut through the hemocoel to the thoracic muscles (5). There the microfilariae develop into first-stage larvae (6). The third-stage infective larvae migrate to arthropod's proboscis (8) and can infect another human when the arthropod takes a blood meal (1).