Report of the State Entomologist. 



125 



Hairsnakes as Parasitic on Insects. 

 Tlie Gordiactea are so frequently encountered in the form of internal 

 parasites of insects, that a brief notice of their character may be 

 acceptable to the entomologist, as well as to the general naturalist. 



The Superstition Regarding Hairsnakes. 

 A prevalent superstition respecting the strange looking creatures 

 known as " hairsnakes," and when of smaller size, " hairworms," is 

 that they are jiroduced from horse-hairs which had found their way 

 into ponds, pools, barrels of rain-water, etc. It should not be neces- 

 sary to state that such a transformation is an utter impossibility, and 

 that no dead organic matter can ever be thus changed into a living 

 creature. It is a law of nature that every animal being, from the 

 lowest to the highest, has its commencement in an egg. 



What Hairworms Are. 

 The hairworms, of which there are a number of sf)ecies known, 

 belong to the Entozoa (of the class of worms — Vermes), which 

 embraces a large number of small, worm-like animals (the tapeworm 

 might with proj)riety be termed a large one) that pass a portion of 

 their existence within the bodies of other animals as parasites. There 

 are two genera of the hairworms, viz. : Gordius and Mermis, which 



Fig. 51.— a, h. Anterior ends of female and male Goedius vaeius; c, rZ, fore and hind 

 ends of Goedius lineaeis : e, f. same of Goedius eobustus ; g, hind end of Goedius 

 vaeius; //, the same, with its three lobes more divergent, and exhibiting the extru- 

 sion of its cord of eggs; i and k, the same (two-lobed) of the male; I, the posterior 

 end of the male of Goedius longolobatus ; in, the same of the male G. lineaeis; 

 n, portion of the fringe of the latter, highly magnified ; o, egg of G. vaeius contain- 

 ing a fully developed embryo. (After Leidy.) 



differ somewhat in structure, and ordinarily in color, the former being 

 brown or black, and the latter white or pale yellow. They vary 

 greatly in length as they occur to us, partly from their age, but also 

 from their difference in species, some measuring but four inches, and 

 the longest recorded, twenty-six inches. Their general hair-like 

 appearance, is well-known. Their structure is apparently the same 



