horsehair worm

noun

: hairworm sense 1

Examples of horsehair worm in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Because genes encode the instructions to build these proteins, Sato and his colleagues set out to examine how both species' gene activity changed during the course of a horsehair worm infection. —Darren Incorvaia, Scientific American, 1 Jan. 2024

Some of its typical bug prey contain horsehair worms, Chordodes fukuii, which grow in a mantid's gut—and somehow manipulate the mantid into diving into the nearest body of water. —Darren Incorvaia, Scientific American, 1 Jan. 2024

As Ed Yong at The Atlantic reports, horsehair worms can survive being swallowed by insects and can even escape the digestive tracts of larger animals. —Jason Daley, Smithsonian, 21 Feb. 2018

The creatures start out as eggs laid in freshwater, where most species of horsehair worm primarily live. —Ben Panko, Smithsonian, 27 Sep. 2017

According to Hanelt, one of his colleagues found horsehair worms nearly seven feet long in the wild. —Ben Panko, Smithsonian, 27 Sep. 2017

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1753, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

horsehair worm

noun

: any of various long slender worms whose adults live in water and whose larvae are parasites of insects

Medical Definition

horsehair worm

noun

horse·​hair worm -ˌha(ə)r-, -he(ə)r- 

: any worm of the class or phylum Nematomorpha

called also gordiacean, horsehair snake