{"id":1563,"date":"2021-11-06T07:44:27","date_gmt":"2021-11-06T13:44:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.minnesotaseasons.com\/?p=1563"},"modified":"2021-11-06T07:44:27","modified_gmt":"2021-11-06T13:44:27","slug":"horsehair-worms-order-gordioidea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.minnesotaseasons.com\/?p=1563","title":{"rendered":"Horsehair worms (Order Gordioidea)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.minnesotaseasons.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/horsehair_worm_Gordioidea_01.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"960\" height=\"640\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.minnesotaseasons.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/horsehair_worm_Gordioidea_01.jpg\" alt=\"horsehair worm (Order Gordioidea)\" class=\"wp-image-1564\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.minnesotaseasons.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/horsehair_worm_Gordioidea_01.jpg 960w, https:\/\/blog.minnesotaseasons.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/horsehair_worm_Gordioidea_01-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.minnesotaseasons.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/horsehair_worm_Gordioidea_01-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blog.minnesotaseasons.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/horsehair_worm_Gordioidea_01-624x416.jpg 624w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><figcaption>Photo by Greg Watson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Gordioidea is an order of parasitic horsehair worms. Larvae are parasites of insects, mostly grasshoppers, crickets, and katydids. They feed on and absorb nutrients from the gut of their host. It is thought that they influence the behavior of their host, bringing them near water when the adult is ready to emerge. Adults are free-living. They are found usually in freshwater habitats, sometimes in semi-aquatic habitats, or inside terrestrial hosts usually near water. They do not feed, but may absorb nutrients through their body walls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Adults are very long, hair-like worms. They are usually 12\u2033 to 16\u2033 long but some can grow up to 47\u2033 in length. The body color is purplish-brown to black in most species, tan in some species. There is a blunt head and a swollen tail, but there are otherwise no distinguishing features that can be seen in the field without magnification.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.minnesotaseasons.com\/Bacteria\/horsehair_worms_Gordioidea.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">http:\/\/www.minnesotaseasons.com\/Bacteria\/horsehair_worms_Gordioidea.html<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"fcbkbttn_buttons_block\" id=\"fcbkbttn_left\"><div class=\"fcbkbttn_like \"><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/blog.minnesotaseasons.com\/?p=1563\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\" layout=\"button_count\"  size=\"small\"><\/fb:like><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gordioidea is an order of parasitic horsehair worms. Larvae are parasites of insects, mostly grasshoppers, crickets, and katydids. They feed on and absorb nutrients from the gut of their host. It is thought that they influence the behavior of their host, bringing them near water when the adult is ready to emerge. Adults are free-living. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[628],"tags":[681,682],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.minnesotaseasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1563"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.minnesotaseasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.minnesotaseasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.minnesotaseasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.minnesotaseasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1563"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.minnesotaseasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1565,"href":"https:\/\/blog.minnesotaseasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1563\/revisions\/1565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.minnesotaseasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.minnesotaseasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.minnesotaseasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}