horsehair worm

Nematoida is a grouping of animals, including the roundworms and horsehair worms.

At its origin, the "Nematoidea" included both roundworms and horsehair worms.

They are sometimes called Gordiacea, and are also known as Horsehair worms.

Nematomorpha, the horsehair worms are parasitoids not truly parasites.

Mermithidae are confusable with the horsehair worms of the phylum Nematomorpha that have a similar life history and appearance.

Horsehair worms can be discovered in damp areas such as watering troughs, streams, puddles, and cisterns.

Nematomorpha (horsehair worms)

(ecdysozoans, such as nematodes, horsehair worms, and molting bilaterians / panarthropods))

Gordius robustus, a species of horsehair worm, is a parasite of the Mormon cricket, as is Ooencyrtus anabrivorus.

Smaller phyla related to them are the Nematomorpha or horsehair worms, and the Kinorhyncha, Priapulida, and Loricifera.

The taxon Nematoidea, including the family Gordiidae (horsehair worms), was then promoted to the rank of phylum by Ray Lankester (1877).

The first differentiation of roundworms from horsehair worms, though erroneous, is due to von Siebold (1843) with orders Nematoidea and Gordiacei (Gordiacea).

This process of moulting is the defining feature of the clade Ecdysozoa, comprising the arthropods, nematodes, velvet worms, horsehair worms, tardigrades, and Cephalorhyncha.

Morphological characters and molecular phylogenies agree with placement of the roundworms as a sister taxon to the parasitic horsehair worms (Nematomorpha); together they make up the Nematoida.

A study published in 2011 strongly suggests that P. abnormis is actually a specimen of P. flavoguttata which demonstrates abnormal morphology due to infection by a horsehair worm (Nematomorpha).

Nematomorpha (sometimes called Gordiacea, and commonly known as horsehair worms or Gordian worms) are a phylum of parasitoid animals superficially morphologically similar to nematode worms, hence the name.

When a series of dead bodies are found floating in the Han River, the public is shocked to discover that the deaths are related to a fatal outbreak of virus-infected mutant parasitic horsehair worms, called Yeongasi, that can control the human brain.