Horsehair worm

Damp environments such as puddles, cattle troughs, streams, cisterns, and inside the bodies of insect hosts.

Larvae are parasites inside insects; adults do not eat and focus solely on reproduction.

As larvae, they parasitize insects like crickets or beetles, eventually manipulating the host's behavior to seek water. As adults, they emerge in water to mate, often knotting themselves together in 'Gordian knots'.

Harmless to humans, livestock, and plants; they are beneficial to ecosystems by helping to control insect populations.