Registered: Aug 2000
Location: b0ulder
Posts: 5128

This is a worm I found crawling on the front leg of my cat. I don't know what kind of worm it is. I wasn't able to find anything matching the look of it, but maybe someone here knows what it is. It leaves a trail when it moves, like a slug or a snail.

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: b0ulder
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It's probably 8 inches long and about the width of a spaghetti noodle.

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: b0ulder
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It's almost transluscent with black stripes running down the length of its body. The head is flat and fanned out.

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Registered: Aug 2000
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It's doubled back on itself here, but you can get a better idea about what the head is like from this picture.

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Registered: May 2002
Location: blessed oblivion
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Are those your pubes in first pic?

That looks like some scary swamp shit I don't have to deal with. Good luck!

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: b0ulder
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Cat hair, mr. predictable.

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http://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/r...s.asp?Bu_Id=168

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.

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Registered: Feb 2004
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T,how'd you find that?
unless you knew it was a hammer head worm.
Wonder if it's tasty.

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Registered: Apr 2004
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"Nutrition: Land planarians devour earthworms, slugs, insect larvae, and are cannibalistic. Prey are located by chemoreceptors located in a single ciliated pit under the head or in a ciliated ventral groove. Struggling prey are held to the substrate and entangled in slimy secretions from the planarian. The pharynx is protruded from the mouth and into the prey. Food is reduced to small particles prior to entering the gastrovascular cavity. The food particles are taken by epithelial cells in amoeboid fashion and formed into food vacuoles. Planaria store food in digestive epithelium and can survive many weeks shrinking slowly in size without feeding. They are capable of utilizing their own tissues such as reproductive tissue for food when reserves are exhausted."
http://creatures.ifas.ufl.edu/misc/land_planarians.HTM

Fascinating. And they use their mouth for excretion too!
But is no parasite. Maybe your cat is actually a slug?

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: Massachusetts
Posts: 2566

Yuck yuck yuck

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quote:

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Geologists have reluctantly confirmed (strictly off-the-record) that the
impact crater in Wetumpka just north of Montgomery was not caused by a
meteorite, but rather appears to be a crash site of an extraterrestrial
space craft of some type. The dispersal pattern of small, green,
worm-like creatures throughout Alabama and western Georgia points to an
origin in Wetumpka. It is unclear at this time whether these creatures
are the intelligent life-form that piloted the space craft, or if they
were merely "passengers" that escaped following the crash (possibly
serving as high-protein sustenance for the missing crew during their
intergalactic voyage).

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the critter is a "North American bipalium,"
a flat worm often called a "land planerium," and a member of the class
"turbellarins" (which is comprised of more than 3,000 species). the "hammerhead" shape of the head was diagnostic and that
most of these species occur in the tropics, but a few are found in
temperate regions of North America.

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Registered: Mar 2004
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quote:

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Originally posted by Large Filipino

Wonder if it's tasty.

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Registered: Oct 2000
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quote:

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Originally posted by T
They scream when you put salt on them.

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Registered: Mar 2004
Location: Still Orygun
Posts: 10441

eeeeeeeeeeeeew, here's another one

http://home.att.net/~larvalbugbio/flatworm.jpg

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Registered: Mar 2004
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gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah ... from the same site as the picture above:

'The other type of flatworm grows as long as eight inches (I measured one that was crawling along the foundation of the house) and is commonly called a land planarian (Bipalium kewense). Most are smaller and the one pictured here is only about three inches long. This flatworm has a definite head (shaped like a little shield) which is very sensitive and I've seen them "feel" their way along with great care. They are a yellowish color with a dark stripe running the whole length of their body. Even though they get very long, they don't get much wider, and resemble a long, sticky piece of string moving through the vegetation. Sometimes, during hot, dry weather, I find this species curled up in a ball, surrounded by a coating of slime'

T, are you tormented by worms in your dreams???

http://home.att.net/~larvalbugbio/slime.html

Last edited by ignatz mouse on 12-05-2004 at 08:31 PM

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Registered: Feb 2004
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Fry 'em up,YUM!

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If I would have seen that hammer head worm for the first time and I had the privlede to name it,I would call it "PENIS WORM!"

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Registered: Feb 2004
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oops..

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quote:

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Originally posted by ignatz mouse

T, are you tormented by worms in your dreams???

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I've had the normal dreams of being buried alive with my coffin full of worms, like every other normal human being has.
Not really, why?

quote:

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Originally posted by Large Filipino
Fry 'em up,YUM!

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Go ahead, eat them up. Just remember, in the end it is THEIR belly you will end up in.

quote:

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Land planarians can regenerate after being cut up,

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Registered: Sep 2000
Location: atlanta
Posts: 6396

nasty nasty nasty

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: b0ulder
Posts: 5128

It's good to know there aren't any of these things living off my cat. I touched it when I picked my cat up and it was very slimy and sticky, indeed. I'd hate to be the worm getting slowly digested by that thing.

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