Worm

For other uses, see Worm (disambiguation).

Worms
Pseudoceros dimidiatus, a species of flatworm
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Subkingdom:	Eumetazoa
(unranked):	Bilateria Hatschek, 1888
Phyla
Annelida (segmented worms) Arthropoda (inchworms, sometimes called "canker worms") Chaetognatha (arrow worms) Gnathostomulid (jaw worms) Hemichordata (acorn/tongue worms) Nematoda (roundworms) Nematomorpha (horsehair worms) Nemertea (ribbon worms) Onychophora (velvet worms) Phoronida (horseshoe worms) Platyhelminthes (flatworms) Priapulida (phallus worms) Sipuncula (peanut worms) Cestoda (tapeworms)

Lumbricus terrestris, the common earthworm.

White tentacles of Eupolymnia crasscornis below red sea urchin in Kona, Hawaii

An inchworm.

Worms /ˈwɜːrm/ are many different distantly related animals that typically have a long cylindrical tube-like body and no limbs. Worms vary in size from microscopic to over 1 metre (3.3 ft) in length for marine polychaete worms (bristle worms), 6.7 metres (22 ft) for the African giant earthworm, Microchaetus, and 58 metres (190 ft) for the marine nemertean worm (bootlace worm), Lineus longissimus. Various types of worm occupy a small variety of parasitic niches, living inside the bodies of other animals. Free-living worm species do not live on land, but instead live in marine or freshwater environments, or underground by burrowing.

In biology, "worm" refers to an obsolete taxon (vermes) used by Carolus Linnaeus and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck for all non-arthropod invertebrate animals, and stems from the Old English word wyrm. Most animals called "worms" are invertebrates, but the term is also used for the amphibian caecilians and the slow worm Anguis, a legless burrowing lizard. Invertebrate animals commonly called "worms" include annelids (earthworms), nematodes (roundworms), platyhelminthes (flatworms), marine polychaete worms (bristle worms), marine nemertean worms ("bootlace worms"), marine Chaetognatha (arrow worms), priapulid worms, and insect larvae such as grubs and maggots.

Worms may also be called helminths, particularly in medical terminology when referring to parasitic worms, especially the Nematoda (roundworms) and Cestoda (tapeworms) which reside in the intestines of their host. When an animal or human is said to "have worms", it means that it is infested with parasitic worms, typically roundworms or tapeworms.

Distribution and habitat

Worms live in almost all parts of the world including marine, freshwater, and terrestrial habitats. Some worms living in the ground help to condition the soil (e.g. annelids, aschelminths). Many thrive as parasites of plants (e.g. aschelminths) and animals, including humans (e.g. platyhelminths, aschelminths). Several other worms may be free-living, or non parasitic. There are worms that live in freshwater, seawater, and even on the seashore. Ecologically, worms form an important link in the food chains in virtually all the ecosystems of the world.

Classification

In everyday language, the term worm is also applied to various other living forms such as larvae, insects, millipedes, centipedes, shipworms (teredo worms), or even some vertebrates (creatures with a backbone) such as blindworms and caecilians. Worms can be divided into several groups, but are still technically decomposers.

• The first of these, Platyhelminthes, includes the flatworms, tapeworms, and flukes. They have a flat, ribbon- or leaf-shaped body with a pair of eyes at the front. Some are parasites.
• The second group contains the threadworms, roundworms, and hookworms. This phylum is called Nematoda. Threadworms may be microscopic, such as the vinegar eelworm, or more than 1 metre (3 feet) long. They are found in damp earth, moss, decaying substances, fresh water, or salt water. Some roundworms are also parasites. The Guinea worm, for example, gets under the skin of the feet and legs of people living in tropical countries.
• The third group consists of the segmented worms, with bodies divided into segments, or rings. This phylum is called Annelida. Among these are the earthworms and the bristle worms of the sea.

In earlier taxonomic classification, all the above were included in the now obsolete group Vermes.

There are hundreds of thousands of species that live in a wide variety of habitats other than soil. Over time this broad definition narrowed to the modern definition, although this still includes several different animal groups.

To most people the most familiar worms are the earthworms, members of phylum Annelida. Earthworms in general have been around for 120 million years. They enrich and aerate the soil; Charles Darwin found that worms turn over the top six inches (15 cm) of topsoil every 20 years in a field near where he lived. In less favourable conditions, such as waterlogged soils or hard soil deficient in suitable organic matter, or in seasonally dry soils, they cannot achieve anything like that. They lack a brain in the sense of the vertebrate brain, but have nerve centers (called ganglia); they also lack eyes but can sense light with photoreceptors. Worms are hermaphrodites (both sexes in one animal) but can cross fertilize.

Other invertebrate groups may be called worms, especially colloquially. In particular, many unrelated insect larvae are called "worms", such as the railroad worm, woodworm, glowworm, bloodworm, inchworm, mealworm, silkworm, and wooly bear worm.

Worms may also be called helminths, particularly in medical terminology when referring to parasitic worms, especially the Nematoda (roundworms) and Cestoda (tapeworms). Hence "helminthology" is the study of parasitic worms. When a human or an animal, such as a dog or horse, is said to "have worms", it means that it is infested with parasitic worms, typically roundworms or tapeworms. Deworming is a method to kill off the worms that have infected a human or animal by giving anthelmintic drugs.

"Ringworm" is not a worm at all, but a skin fungus.

Characteristics

Paragordius tricuspidatus (Nematomorpha)

Some species of earthworms have a tongue-like lobe above the mouth called prostomium. The prostomium is actually a sensory device. Earthworms do not have a nose, eyes, ears, or hands to gather sensory information about their environment. Instead, they depend on their prostomium and sensory receptors in their skin to "feel" their way through the soil. Worms usually have a cylindrical, flattened, or leaf-like body shape and are often without any true limbs or appendages. Instead, they may have bristles or fins that help them move. A few have light-sensing organs. Worms vary in size from less than 1 mm (0.04 inch) in certain aschelminths to more than 30 m (100 feet) in certain ribbon worms. Recently, researchers have found electromagnetic sensor in the worm's brain, worms use it to detect earth's magnetic field and facilitate the underground navigation.

Some worms reproduce sexually. Hermaphroditism, the condition in which a single individual possesses both male and female reproductive parts, is common in many groups of worms. Asexual reproduction, whereby new individuals develop from the body cells of another, also occurs in some worms.

Worm species differ in their abilities to move about on their own. Many species have bodies with no major muscles, and cannot move on their own—they must be moved by forces or other animals in their environment. Many other species have bodies with major muscles and can move on their own; they are a type of muscular hydrostat. Many species of worms are decomposers; they break down dead plants and animals to return nutrients to the soil. They have also been known to infiltrate households feeding on food in the early stages of decomposition, namely breads and cheeses.

Earthworms are divided into three different categories. The first are the surface dwellers, the Epigeic worms. Then there are the upper soil worms, the Endogeic worms. Finally, there are the deep burrowing species, the Anecic.

Society and culture

Historically, English-speaking cultures have used the (now deprecated) terms worm, Wurm, or wyrm to describe carnivorous reptiles ("serpents"), and the related mythical beasts dragons.

The term worm can also be used as an insult or pejorative term used towards people to describe a cowardly or weak individual or individual seen as pitiable.

Imagery in the arts

See also: List of fictional worms and Fictional depictions of worms

Worms are sometimes used as a metaphor of putrefaction or corruption; a corpse may be said to be "fed to the worms".

Examples:

• "A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king, and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm" Hamlet, Shakespeare
• "But let concealment, like a worm i' the bud, Feed on her damask cheek: she pin'd in thought" Twelfth Night, Shakespeare
• The Battleship Potemkin
• "The Conqueror Worm", a poem in Edgar Allan Poe's short story "Ligeia"
• "The Festival", a short story by H. P. Lovecraft
• The Wall, Pink Floyd. Worms are used to represent the main character's slipping grasp on reality, and are "eating into his brain"

See also

• Sea worm, lists various types of marine worms
• Worm cast
• Worm charming