Update on parasitic hairworms

By Victoria Plum

I have been impressed by the information flooding in re my photo of a “nematode” (Up the Garden Path, 19 May).

I had never seen such a thing and nematode was the only name I could put to it, but in fact it turns out to be a hairworm.

Nematomorpha are a phylum of parasitoid animals, superficially similar to nematode worms in morphology, hence the name.

Most species range in size from 50–100 millimetres long, reaching two metres in extreme cases, and 1–3 millimetres in diameter.

They parasitise small animals, for instance crickets and grasshoppers – not humans and not plants.

It is said that their appearance is a portent of a thunderstorm.