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Horsehair Worm — printable fact sheet
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Horsehair Worm
Gordius spp.
Horsehair worms (phylum Nematomorpha) are long, thin, brown, apparently featureless threads that show up in puddles, horse troughs and swimming pools, which is where the old folk belief came from that horse hairs falling into water came alive. The reality is stranger. The adult …
Did you know?
- Horsehair worms were once believed to spontaneously generate from horsehair left in water, a myth that persisted for centuries.
- In Japanese headwater streams, worm-driven cricket suicides deliver so much insect biomass into the water that they can supply a substantial share of the annual energy budget of stream-dwelling trout - a parasite quietly restructuring a fish population. Horsehair worms are entirely harmless to humans, horses and pets; a worm found in a pet's water bowl came out of an insect, not the animal. Adults can exceed a metre in length in some species while remaining as thin as a thread.
What I learned
Draw the horsehair worm
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