Worm

Worms are many different distantly related animals that typically

have a long cylindrical tube-like body, no limbs, and no eyes.
Worms vary in size from microscopic to over 1 metre (3.3 ft) in
length for marine polychaete worms (bristle worms),[1] 6.7 metres
(22 ft) for the African giant earthworm, Microchaetus rappi,[2] and
58 metres (190 ft) for the marine nemertean worm (bootlace worm),
Lineus longissimus.[3] 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, now seen to be paraphyletic. The name stems Lumbricus terrestris, an earthworm
from the Old English word wyrm. Most animals called "worms" are
invertebrates, but the term is also used for the amphibian caecilians
and the slowworm Anguis, a legless burrowing lizard. Invertebrate
animals commonly called "worms" include annelids (earthworms
and marine polychaete or bristle worms), nematodes (roundworms),
platyhelminthes (flatworms), 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 White tentacles of Eupolymnia
the intestines of their host. When an animal or human is said to crasscornis, a spaghetti worm
"have worms", it means that it is infested with parasitic worms,
typically roundworms or tapeworms. Lungworm is also a common
parasitic worm found in various animal species such as fish and cats.

Contents
History
Informal grouping
Society and culture
See also
Notes
References

History
In taxonomy, "worm" refers to an obsolete grouping, Vermes, used
by Carl Linnaeus and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck for all non-arthropod
invertebrate animals, now seen to be polyphyletic. In 1758, Linnaeus
created the first hierarchical classification in his Systema Naturae.[4]
In his original scheme, the animals were one of three kingdoms,
divided into the classes of Vermes, Insecta, Pisces, Amphibia, Aves,
and Mammalia. Since then the last four have all been subsumed into
a single phylum, the Chordata, while his Insecta (which included the
crustaceans and arachnids) and Vermes have been renamed or
Paragordius tricuspidatus, a
broken up. The process was begun in 1793 by Lamarck, who called
nematomorphan
the Vermes une espèce de chaos (a sort of chaos)[a] and split the
group into three new phyla, worms, echinoderms, and polyps (which
contained corals and jellyfish). By 1809, in his Philosophie
Zoologique, Lamarck had created 9 phyla apart from vertebrates
(where he still had 4 phyla: mammals, birds, reptiles, and fish) and
molluscs, namely cirripedes, annelids, crustaceans, arachnids,
insects, worms, radiates, polyps, and infusorians.[6] Chordates are
remarkably wormlike by ancestry.[7]

Informal grouping
Pseudoceros dimidiatus, a flatworm
In the 13th century, worms were recognized in Europe as part of the
category of reptiles that consisted of a miscellany of egg-laying
creatures, including "snakes, various fantastic monsters, lizards, assorted amphibians," as recorded by
Vincent of Beauvais in his Mirror of Nature.[8] 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.

Familiar worms include the earthworms, members of phylum Annelida. 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 woolly 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.

Society and culture
Wurm, or wyrm was the Old English term for carnivorous reptiles
("serpents"), and mythical dragons. Worm has been used as a pejorative
epithet to describe a cowardly, weak or pitiable person. Worms can also be
farmed for the production of nutrient-rich vermicompost.

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

Notes Worm Hotel

a. The prefix une espèce de is pejorative.[5]

References
1. "Cornwall – Nature – Superstar Worm" (https://www.bbc.co.uk/cornwall/content/articles/2009/0
4/07/nature_worm_feature.shtml). BBC.
2. Keely Parrack (21 June 2005) "The Mighty Worm" (https://web.archive.org/web/200902191419
51/http://www.wormdigest.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=102&Itemid=2).
Worm Digest.
3. Mark Carwardine (1995) The Guinness Book of Animal Records. Guinness Publishing. p. 232.
4. Linnaeus, Carl (1758). Systema naturae per regna tria naturae :secundum classes, ordines,
genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis (https://www.biodiversitylibrar
y.org/bibliography/542) (in Latin) (10th ed.). Holmiae (Laurentii Salvii). Archived (https://web.ar
chive.org/web/20081010032456/http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/542) from the
original on 10 October 2008. Retrieved 22 September 2008.
5. "Espèce de" (http://dictionnaire.reverso.net/francais-anglais/esp%C3%A8ce%20de%20cr%C
3%A9tin). Reverso Dictionnnaire. Retrieved 1 March 2018.
6. Gould, Stephen Jay (2011). The Lying Stones of Marrakech (https://books.google.com/books?i
d=wApMpVmi-5gC&pg=PA130). Harvard University Press. pp. 130–134. ISBN 978-0-674-
06167-5.
7. Brown, Federico D.; Prendergast, Andrew; Swalla, Billie J. (2008). "Man is but a worm:
Chordate origins". Genesis. 46 (11): 605–613. doi:10.1002/dvg.20471 (https://doi.org/10.100
2%2Fdvg.20471). PMID 19003926 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19003926).
8. Franklin-Brown, Mary (2012). Reading the world : encyclopedic writing in the scholastic age.
Chicago London: The University of Chicago Press. p. 223;377. ISBN 9780226260709.

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