Horsehair worm

Found in freshwater environments like ponds, streams, and puddles; larvae are parasitic within terrestrial insects.

Adults do not eat; larvae are parasites that absorb nutrients from the body cavity of hosts like grasshoppers, crickets, or beetles.

Adults are free-living aquatic organisms that mate in water. Larvae infect land-dwelling insects and eventually manipulate the host's behavior to seek water, where the adult worm emerges.

Harmless to humans, pets, and plants. Benefits the ecosystem by regulating populations of certain insects like crickets and grasshoppers.