![]() ![]() Development into the adult form takes weeks or months, and the larva moults several times as it grows in size. If the worms are found in livestock water troughs, the water can be kept clean with routine flushing. Furthermore, the worms can be beneficial, because they will parasitize a few pest insect species, although their effect on natural invertebrate populations is minimal. Once inside the host, the larvae live inside the haemocoel and absorb nutrients directly through their skin. Control of horsehair worms in natural water sources is impractical. The larvae have rings of cuticular hooks and terminal stylets that are believed to be used to enter the hosts. Adults have cylindrical gonads, opening into the cloaca. Reproductively, they are dioecious, with the internal fertilization of eggs that are then laid in gelatinous strings. This horsehair worm parasite is prominent in Japan, Nepal and Taiwan and New Zealand. Because nematomorphs are sometimes found after they have emerged from their host, definitive information on hosts is unknown in some species. The definitive host range of horsehair worms is limited to one or few species.
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