Yuck! A worm! Oh, sorry, but you're going to have to be more specific as to what you're yucking about. "Worm" refers to a whole bunch of animals no more closely related than we are to shellfish or corals. Basically, anything that doesn't have a backbone and is long and slender is, in everyday parlance, a worm. But shape isn't all that meaningful, and a number of very distant relatives are called worms—like earthworms, horsehair worms, flatworms, and roundworms.
One of the most common of these are the roundworms, or nematodes. They
occur throughout our desert—in fact, throughout the world! One study reported 90,000
roundworms in a single rotten apple, and another some 236 species in just a few cubic
inches of sediment. Having trouble raising tomatoes where they did fine last year?
Nematodes are the suspects. Child come home with pinworms? Nematodes. But be glad you
live in a desert—in the tropics, you might have to worry about more deadly roundworms,
like those causing elephantiasis and river blindness. Still think all worms are
alike?
Contributor: Arthur H. Harris, Laboratory for Environmental Biology, Centennial Museum, University of Texas at El Paso.
Desert Diary is a joint production of the Centennial Museum and KTEP National Public Radio at the University of Texas at El Paso.
Plant and insect parasitic nematodes
University of Nebraska-Lincoln