I do not know. I thought it was a piece of web or string hanging down, but it was moving in all sorts of directions. I grabbed this image, and right after, the "worm" fell to the ground and took off under the bushes.
Not the best image, but it was a fast grab, hardly time to focus.
Ken - what is this and do I want it hanging around my garden?
Last edited by salden on Sat Jun 02, 2007 9:56 am, edited 1 time in total.
Excellent find Sue...I have only seen one of these in my whole life. I was going to say it looked like maybe a bird pooped it out The one I saw had a head like a sperm cell. Very strange indeed.
Take Nothing but Pictures--Leave Nothing but Footprints.
Doug Breda
I've seen horsehair worms before, but either I never read about the life cycle, or it plumb slipped my mind that they're internal parasites of insects.
Given the size of the worms, those must be some big insects that they're parasitizing!
Hi Sue, a very interesting find you´ve made there! Thanks for sharing.
You´re right, it looks very similar to what is called a "hairworm" in English.
But the free-living sexual adult forms of these Nematomorpha are normally found in fresh water. I occasionally encouter them in water-filled ditches and ponds/puddles.
So the one thing that rings a bell in my memory is the place you´ve found the worm and its behaviour. The other is the blackish colour pattern that can be seen on your photo.
There are other worms that are also parasites of insects, look very similar to Nematomorpha and are of such a huge size but belong to the Nematoda.
And amongst them I recall a mermithid nematode that is known for its unique life cycle with the behaviour of climbing on plants where the female deposits her eggs. The hatched larvae are then taken up orally by the insect host.
The name of this nematode is Mermis nigrescens (Note, "nigrescens" means blackish) and I think most probably you´ve captured one of these.
Cheers,
Betty.
Last edited by Planapo on Sun Jun 03, 2007 5:07 am, edited 1 time in total.
) worm. Read this: 
