The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1875-07-29
The Hair Worm, or HOrsehair Snake.

A friend has sent us q lively specimen
of that singular species of animated ma
ture known as the chair worm," or
"horschair snake" 1t came into the
possession of our friend from the faucet
of her dwelling, connected with the
water works. In answer to inquiries as
to its origin, and how it came all the way
through the pipes, we append the fol
lowing:
Most of our readers are doubtless
familiar with the form and appearance of
this singular worm or snake, and many
of us, when boys, and some of us when
full grown men and women, were fully
impressed with the belief that hair
from horses tail, when left in a pond .
or other still, warm water, would turn
into one of those singular creatures. 1t
has been popular belief that if incau-
tiously handled it will bite the ends of
the fingers and occasion that peculiar
sore or gathering called whitJow. But
the microscope shows that it has neither
jaws nor other instruments by which it
can either bite or sting. Indeed, it has
not even mouth, but obtains its susie
nance by the absorption of fluids through
a membrane over that part of its body
where the mouth should be. Joseph
Leidy, well known Philadelphia pro-
| fessor, once tried series of exhaustive
experiments to prove that this popular
notion of it's origin could not be true,
The microscope and scientific investiga-
| ton. however, have more fully proven
that this, like every other living crea-
ture, springs from an egg in the first
place.
Science informs us that this is not an
insect, but belongs to that class of para
site worms which live and thrive for q
certain length of time in the intestines
or substances of some other body, like
the tape worm in the human system and
the trichine in the hog The name of
the genus to which this worm belongs is
Gordi,s, and there are quite a number
of different species. The most common
species of this genus, and that to which
the one now before us belongs, live in
in the bodies of grasshoppels, crickets,
and various other insects; but when
nearly mature and full grown, they bore
their way out of their insect home, and
take to the water or moist earth, where
after a few days they lay their eggs,
which are almost innumerable. They
are laid in long strings, which look like
very fine white sewing cotton. One of
these worms was seen by Prof. Leidy,
while he was experimenting, to lay
string ninety inches long. These eggs
are exceedingly small-so small that up
ward of II, 900 of them have been count
ed in one forty-ffth of an inch as thus
laid in q string. This would give some
thing like six millions of eggs as the
product of the single worm observed by
Prof. Leidy.
The eggs, exposed to the warm sun,
hatch in about one month, and hberate
worms which have very little or no re-
semblance to their parents. The pro-
fessor during his investigation succeeded
in Matching several eggs. They pro-
duced small tadpole-shaped creatures,
with spine and two circles of sharp
hooks-six in circle, which could be
pushed in and down out of the head.
This forms kind of boring apparatus,
by which the tadpole can penetrate the
bodies of such insects as may approach
them. The professor placed some of
the Larvae of May flies in the vessel in
which the eggs were hatched, and soon
the young tadpole GOrdu were seen to
bore their way into the larvae. They
were also seen to penetrate the delicate
membrane at the joints of the legs of
crickets and grasshoppers which were
confined and placed in the vessel. They
were carefully watched, and it was found
that they gradually assembled among the
muscles and other organs of the bodies,
strongly reminding one of the similar
but slower movement of trichin@ in the
muscles of man and the hog.
OF course, their change from the tad
pole condition to the worm takes place
within the body of the insect in which
they take up their temporary home,
living and increasing by the nutritious
fluids there found until nearly or quite
fully grown. That such is the case has
been verified by report from Mr.. JUS
tus Gage, who some years since wrote to
the Michigan Farmer, rs the result Of
his observations, that he had discover ed
that the cricket resorts to the water dur
ing the month of August to rid itself of
its unwelcome intruder. Mr.. Gage had
been led to believe that the hair worms,
which We're numerous in a certain
locality, issued from the bodies OF
crickets, which were also numerous in
the same locality, although he was unac-
quainted with the manner in which they
found their way into the crickets.
One day, after he had been expert
menting by placing cricllets in the
water to obtain hair worms from them,
and had succeeded in securing two
specimens, he noticed a cricket crawling
up the side of his water pail. 1t jumped
into the water, lay quiet for a moment,
produced hair worm some six inches in
length, and then made its escape nimbly
over the edge of ths pail. About the
same time he found worm some seven
inches long in q dead cricket which he
found under a stone.-Pacifc R,Ta
! Press.
Training a Child.