sabella

A seaworm of the genus Sabella, around 25 cm long, which lives in tubes that it builds itself.


earthworm

/ˈɜː(ɹ)θˌwɜː(ɹ)m/

From Middle English erthe-worm, erþe-worm, erþe worm (also as worm of þe erthe, worm of þe erþe), equivalent to earth + worm. Compare Saterland Frisian Äidwurm (“earthworm”), West Frisian ierdwjirm (“earthworm”), Dutch aardworm (“earthworm”), less common German Erdwurm (“earthworm”).

It does not, however, happen that the whole spermatosphere is converted into spermatoblasts; there remains a passive portion, which in the earthworm occupies a central position; this is the "sperm-blasophore," or "blastophoral cell."


nereid

From the stem of Latin Nērēis (“sea-nymph”), from Ancient Greek Νηρηΐς (Nērēḯs), from Νηρεύς (Nēreús, “the sea-god Nereus”).

(Greek mythology) One of 50 sea nymphs who were attendants upon Poseidon (Neptune), and were represented as riding on sea horses, sometimes in human form and sometimes with the tail of a fish.


leech

From Middle English leche (“blood-sucking worm”), from Old English lǣċe (“blood-sucking worm”), akin to Middle Dutch lāke ("blood-sucking worm"; > modern Dutch laak).

gloss

"blood-sucking worm"; > modern Dutch <i class="Latn mention" lang="nl">laak</i>

The leech on his leg had swelled to more than five inches long, puffed and swollen on his blood.

2003, William W. Johnstone, The Last Of The Dog Team, page 195:

An aquatic blood-sucking annelid of class Hirudinea, especially Hirudo medicinalis.


leech

en-verb

leech (third-person singular simple present leeches, present participle leeching, simple past and past participle leeched)

leeches (present singular third-person)
leeching (participle present)
leeched (participle past)
leeched (past)

The poppy made him sleep and while he slept they leeched him to drain off the bad blood.

2003, George R.R. Martin, A Storm of Swords:

(transitive, literally) To apply a leech medicinally, so that it sucks blood from the patient.

Near-synonyms: mooch, suck down

Bert leeched hundreds of files from the BBS, but never uploaded anything in return.

Her daughter Astrid (new Tim Burton muse Jenna Ortega) barely speaks to her, and her greasy-haired boyfriend Rory (Justin Theroux, proving once again to be a comedic tour de force) obviously leeching off her fame and money

2024 September 6, Anna McKibbin, “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice reinvigorates Tim Burton’s stale brand, returning to practical playfulness”, in AV Club:

(transitive, figuratively) To drain (resources) without giving back.


leech

From Middle English lek, leche, lyche, from Old Norse lík (“leechline”), from Proto-West Germanic *līk, from Proto-Germanic *līką (compare West Frisian lyk (“band”), Dutch lijk (“boltrope”), Middle High German geleich (“joint, limb”)), from Proto-Indo-European *leyǵ- ‘to bind’ (compare Latin ligō (“tie, bind”), Ukrainian нали́гати (nalýhaty, “to bridle, fetter”), Albanian lidh (“to bind”), Hittite link- (caus. linganu-) ‘to swear’ (with -n- infix).

cog

To help combat these problems, almost all sailmakers trim the leeches of their headsails to a hollow or concave profile and enclose a LEECHLINE within the leech tabling.

1984, Sven Donaldson, A Sailor's Guide to Sails, page 130:

(nautical) The vertical edge of a square sail.


annelid

From French annélidé, coined by French naturalist Lamarck.

Incarcerated in earth-filled boxes, the hapless annelids face execution in the morning. Death by immersion in fishponds, death by cruel hooks.

1990 January 4, Pete Dunne, “IN THE NATURAL STATE”, in The New York Times:

The polychaetous annelid species complex of Neanthes acuminata has a widespread distribution, with names depending on geographic location.

2015 September 4, Kondethimmanahalli H. Chandramouli, Donald Reish, Huoming Zhang, Pei-Yuan Qian & Timothy Ravasi, “Proteomic Changes Associated with Successive Reproductive Periods in Male Polychaetous Neanthes arenaceodentata”, in Scientific Reports, →DOI:

Any of various wormlike animals, of the phylum Annelida, having a segmented body; they include the earthworm and the leech.


maddock

From Middle English maddok, from an unrecorded Old English form corresponding to Old Norse maðkr (whence dialectal English mawk, Danish maddike, Swedish mask), originally a diminutive of the Proto-Germanic *maþô (“worm”) (whence Old English maþa), equivalent to made (“maggot”) + -ock.


bone-eating snot flower worm

en-noun

bone-eating snot flower worm (plural bone-eating snot flower worms)

A slight misunderstanding of the taxonomic name Osedax mucofloris, which actually means "snot-flower bone-eater", with mucofloris modifying Osedax rather than the other way around.

Bone-eating snot flower (Osedax mucofloris) is the unglamorous name given to a species of worm discovered feeding off minke whale carcasses in the North Sea

2005 October 19, “Bone-eating snot flower worm hitches a ride on whales”, in The Guardian:

Once all the meat has been stripped away, even the bones provide food for a creature called the "bone-eating snot flower worm" (Osedax mucofloris).

2010 May 27, “Creatures of the deep surface at new exhibition”, in CNN:

Known informally as the bone-eating snot-flower worm, it looks like a frilly pink plume growing up out of sheer bone

2010 October 21, “Los Angeles News - Rob Brezsny's Free Will Astrology Column”, in LA Weekly:

Such a range of habitats along with a wide range of feeding strategies, including predation, deposit feeding, filter feeding, parasitism and symbiosis, as well as the unusual strategy adopted by the bone-eating snot-flower worm

2012, DEK Ferrier, “Evolutionary crossroads in developmental biology: annelids”, in Development:

Osedax mucofloris
Osedax mucofloris#Translingual

A worm-like creature, Osedax mucofloris, that feeds on the carcasses of minke whales in the North Sea.


oligochaete

Any of various hermaphroditic aquatic and terrestrial annelid worms, of the subclass Oligochaeta, that have single bristles along the body.


ice worm

any of several worms, of the genus Mesenchytraeus, that inhabit glacial ice


nightcrawler

Lumbricus terrestris
Lumbricus terrestris#Translingual

An earthworm of the species Lumbricus terrestris, known for its large size and nocturnal surfacings.


red wiggler

(Southern US) An earthworm, especially when used as bait for fishing.


angleworm

/ˈæŋ.ɡəlˌwɜɹm/

A bird came down the walk : / He did not know I saw ; / He bit an angle-worm in halves / And ate the fellow, raw.

a. 1887 (date written), Emily Dickinson, “In the Garden”, in Mabel Loomis Todd and T[homas] W[entworth] Higginson, editors, Poems, Second Series, Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, published 1891, page 140:

He turned again to where his clan
In one astounding tangle
With eager haste together ran
To slay the helpless angle

1898, Guy Wetmore Carryl, The Precipitate Cock and the Unappreciated Pearl:

(Northern US) An earthworm, used as or destined to be used as bait to catch fish.


polychete

From Ancient Greek πολύς (polús, “many”) + χαίτη (khaítē, “chaeta”), equivalent to poly- + chaeta.

Any of many annelid worms, of the class Polychaeta, such as the lugworm; they have a segmented body with pairs of bristles on each segment.


tubeworm

Any of many marine polychaete worms, mostly of the family Serpulidae, which construct permanent calcareous tubes on rocks, ship bottoms etc.

toke pā (specificallyPomatoceros caeruleus)


wormery

A self-contained system for producing vermicompost.


oligochaetologist

From oligochaetology + -ist, from Oligochaeta, the taxonomic class of earthworms.

An ornithologist can simply meander through a forest and look up; an oligochaetologist must keep an ear to the ground, so to speak, and try to divine the ideal earthworm habitat.

2007 April 22, Amy Stewart, “How the Worm Turns”, in New York Times:

A scientist dedicated to the study of earthworms.


fireworm

The larva of any of several tortricid moths (family Tortricidae).

The larva of a small tortricid moth that feeds on cranberry leaves, giving the plant a burnt look; the cranberry worm.


machaeridian

(paleontology) A fossil form of segmented (annelid) worm, of the class Machaeridia, that had a scaly armour of mineralised plates


echiuran

Any annelid worm of the subclass Echiura, formerly considered to be its own phylum.


alvinellid

Any of several polychaete worms, of the family Alvinellidae, endemic to hydrothermal vents in the Pacific Ocean


siboglinid

(zoology) Any polychaete annelid worm of the family Siboglinidae.


seamouse

Polychaete worm of genus Aphrodita, especially (Aphrodita aculeata), found in the North Atlantic and in European seas.


annelidan

en-adj

annelidan (comparative more annelidan, superlative most annelidan)

more annelidan (comparative)
most annelidan (superlative)


blackworm

An oligochaete, Lumbriculus variegatus, found in shallow water marshes, ponds, and swamps in North America and Europe, feeding on microorganisms and organic material.


redworm

A parasitic worm of the family Strongylidae, which causes anaemia in many vertebrates.


ragworm

/ˈɹæɡ.wɜː(ɹ)m/

A polychaete worm in the genus Nereis or the family Nereididae, often used as bait in fishing.

maino

polychaete worm of the genus Nereis or the family Nereididae


lugworm

From lug (“anything that moves slowly”) + worm.

compound

Any of several species of large marine annelid worm of the genus Arenicola

especially the northern lugworm (Arenicola marina), whose coiled castings can often be seen on beaches at low tide.


sandworm

(US) A clam worm or ragworm, of species Alitta virens.


vermiculture

There is an ecological message. There is some product placement. It’s kind of great, if you groove on Richard Brautigan and can dig a vermiculture subplot.

2010 April 22, Blake Wilson, “'Divine Right's Trip': A Forgotten Hippie Novel”, in New York Times ArtsBeat:

The keeping of worms, for example for commercial or horticultural reasons.


sabellid

A worm of the genus Sabella or the family Sabellidae.


sabelloid

en-adj

sabelloid (comparative more sabelloid, superlative most sabelloid)

more sabelloid (comparative)
most sabelloid (superlative)

Of, like, or relating to the genus Sabella or any worm of this genus.


acrocirrid

(zoology) Any of many polychaete worms of the family Acrocirridae


groundworm

They are scheming and talking, as if they belonged, like a toad or a ground-worm, to the acre on which they were born:

1828, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson: with annotations, Volume 1, Houghton Mifflin (1909), Journal XIX, p. 239


tubifex

Any member of the genus Tubifex of tubificid annelids, some of which are used to feed fish in freshwater aquaria.


lumbricine

Any earthworm in the suborder Lumbricina.


peacock worm

I breed peacock worm.

Peacock worm can be used for many things.

(uncountable) A particular species of worm, Sabella pavonina.


wormcast

A small pile of sand or soil, the end product of the breakdown of organic matter by an earthworm.


brandling

en-noun

brandling (countable and uncountable, plural brandlings)

And you also find another kind of worm called a brandling, which is striped and smells like an earwig, and which is very good bait for perch.

1939, George Orwell, Coming Up for Air, part 2, chapter 4:

A small, red earthworm, Eisenia fetida, used for bait in freshwater fishing.


echiurid

Any of several spoon worms of the class Echiura.


giant tube worm

giant tube worm (plural giant tube worms)

Kuphus polythalamia, a shipworm, that feeds on submerged wood and is the longest extant mollusc.


scaleback

w:Webster's Dictionary#Webster's New International Dictionary 1909

(archaic) Any member of numerous species of marine annelids of the Polynoidae family, with two rows of scale-like elytra along the back


scaleback

Budgetary constraints led to a scaleback in quality.

An operation by which something is scaled back or reduced.


branlin

A small red worm or larva, used as bait for fish.


archiannelid

(zoology) Any member of the class Archiannelida of primitive marine worms.


spoonworm

A worm of the genus Thalassema, with a spoon-like proboscis.


horse-leech

From Middle English horseleche, horse leche (“horse doctor; bloodsucker, leech”), equivalent to horse + leech.
So called because it commonly attacks the membrane that lines the inside of the mouth and nostrils of animals, such as horses, that drink at pools where it lives.

Some use horse-leeches behind the ears, and apply opium to the place.

1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition II, section 5, member 1, subsection vi:

A type of sucking worm, Haemopis sanguisuga, larger than the common leech.


sanguisuge

From Middle English sanguisuge, from Latin sanguisuga, from sanguis (“blood”) + sugere (“to suck”).

For that blody judge
And mighty sanguisuge,
The Pope that is so huge,
Is ever ther refuge;

a. 1529?, John Skelton [attributed], “The Image of Ipocrysy”, in The Political Works of Skelton and Donne, published 1879, page 408:

Proceede to more manifest diminishing of the humor, by bludletting, cupping, or sanguisuges

1585, Johann Jacob Wecker, translated by John Banister, A compendious chyrurgerie, book 3, chapter 14, page 452:

Can slice a veine, and by the trifid sluce
Of sanguisuge diminish peccant blood

1628, W. William Folkingham, Panala medica vel sanitatis et longævitatis alumna catholica = The fruitfull and frugall nourse of sound health and long life, page 116:

(obsolete, rare) A leech (blood-sucking annelid).


atrocha

(zoology) A kind of chaetopod larva in which no circles of cilia are developed.


chaetopod

(zoology, obsolete) Any of the Chaetopoda, an obsolete invertebrate phylum (more or less equivalent to the modern Annelida) made up of groups characterized by lateral bundles of bristles called chaetae used for locomotion.


tubicole

(zoology) Any member of the order Tubicola (syn. Tubicolae) of annelids.


lob-worm

The lugworm, especially when used in angling.


myzostomid

(zoology) Any member of the Myzostomida; a kind of parasitic worm.


acanthodrilid

(zoology) Any member of the Acanthodrilidae.


almid

(zoology) Any annelid worm of the family Almidae.


ampharetid

(zoology) Any polychete in the family Ampharetidae.


amphinomid

(zoology) Any member of the family Amphinomidae of sea mice or bristle worms.


arenicolid

(zoology) Any of the polychete worms in the family Arenicolidae.


chaetopterid

(zoology) Any polychaete worm in the family Chaetopteridae.


cirratulid

(zoology) Any polychaete worm of the family Cirratulidae.


criodrilid

(zoology) Any worm of the family Criodrilidae.


enchytraeid

The effect of fertilizers on the diversity of enchytraeids has not been studied but occurrence of high abundance of enchytraeids after organic manure application has been noted.

1999, M. V. Reddy, Management of Tropical Agroecosystems and the Beneficial Soil Biota, page 218:

Enchytraeids probably consume and further process larger fecal pellets and castings of soil macrofauna, such as collembolans and earthworms (Zachariae, 1984; Rusek, 1985).

2006, Eldor A. Paul, Soil Microbiology, Ecology and Biochemistry, page 177:

The exclusion of enchytraeids from many treatises and aquatic oligochaetes keys cannot be justified as approximately one third of the total enchytraeid species (Martin et al. 2008) inhabit aquatic habitats.

2011, Pilar Rodriguez, Trefor B. Reynoldson, The Pollution Biology of Aquatic Oligochaetes, page 21:

(zoology) Any of the microdrile oligochaetes of the family Enchytraeidae, which resemble small earthworms.


erpobdellid

(zoology) Any leech of the family Erpobdellidae.


eudrilid

(zoology) Any oligochaete worm in the family Eudrilidae.


eunicid

(zoology) Any polychaete worm of the family Eunicidae.

(zoology, more broadly) Any polychaete worm of the order Eunicida.


glossiphoniid

(zoology) Any leech of the family Glossiphoniidae.


glossoscolecid

(zoology) Any earthworm of the family Glossoscolecidae.


haemadipsid

(zoology) Any leech of the family Haemadipsidae.


hesionid

(zoology) Any polychaete worm of the family Hesionidae.


lumbricid

(zoology) Any earthworm in the family Lumbricidae.


lumbriculid

(zoology) Any worm of the family Lumbriculidae.


megascolecid

Before the study was begun, the known oligochaete fauna of Tasmania consisted of six species of aquatic microdriles, twenty-three indigenous species of megascolecid earthworms, and introduced earthworms of the family Lumbricidae.

1975, Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History): Zoology, volume 26, page 205:

(zoology) Any earthworm of the family Megascolecidae.


naidid

(zoology) Any worm of the family Naididae.


nephtyid

(zoology) Any polychaete worm of the family Nephtyidae.


nereidid

(zoology) Any polychaete worm of the Nereididae.


nerillid

(zoology) Any polychaete worm of the family Nerillidae.


onuphid

(zoology) Any polychaete worm of the family Onuphidae.


opheliid

(zoology) Any polychaete worm of the family Opheliidae.


oweniid

(zoology) Any polychaete worm of the family Oweniidae.


orbiniid

(zoology) Any polychaete worm of the family Orbiniidae.


pectinariid

(zoology) Any polychaete worm of the family Pectinariidae.


sabellariid

(zoology) Any polychaete worm of the family Sabellariidae.


saccocirrid

(zoology) Any polychaete worm in the family Saccocirridae.


serpulid

(zoology) Any of the family Serpulidae of annelid worms.


spintherid

(zoology) Any polychaete worm of the family Spintheridae.


spionid

(zoology) Any of the family Spionidae of polychaete worms.


terebellid

(zoology) Any member of the Terebellidae.


tubificid

(zoology) Any worm in the order Tubificida, suborder Tubificina, or family Tubificidae, variously constituted.


sea mouse

Perhaps because it resembles a bedraggled mouse when washed up on shore.

A marine polychaete worm (genus Aphrodita) with the body covered in a dense mat of setae.


pilargid

(zoology) Any polychaete worm of the family Pilargidae.


capitellid

(zoology) Any polychaete worm of the family Capitellidae.


clitellate

(zoology) Any annelid worm of the class Clitellata.


nautiliniellid

Any polychaete of the family Nautiliniellidae


phyllodocid

Any polychaete of the order Phyllodocida


angledog

(dialects, chiefly US, New England, dated) An earthworm.


Pompeii worm

The two-metre-long tube worms and the smaller Pompeii worms which bathe in scalding temperatures on volcanic vents in the deep ocean, and the bristly Christmas tree worms that achieved fame in impossibly large but otherwise accurate translation to the planet Pandora in the film Avatar

2012, Caspar Henderson, The Book of Barely Imagined Beings, page 88:

Alvinella pompejana, a deep-sea polychaete worm.


microdrile

From Ancient Greek μικρός (mikrós, “small”) + δρῖλος (drîlos, “worm”).

In microdriles the circular muscle is generally only weakly developed.

1981, Barrie Gillean Molyneux Jamieson, The Ultrastructure of the Oligochaeta, page 45:

Microdriles in our subcontinent are represented by three families of aquatic oligochaetes namely Naididae, Tubificidae and Phraeodrilidae, and terrestrial pot worms of the Enchytraeidae.

1991, Zoological Survey of India, Animal Resources of India: Protozoa to Mammalia: State of the Art, page 164:

Any relatively small, generally aquatic, oligochaete, a member of a sometimes used size-based division of the class Oligochaeta.


acanthodriline

Belonging or related to the earthworm subfamily Acanthodrilinae.


octochaetid

Belonging or related to the family Octochaetidae of earthworms.


phreodrilid

Belonging or related to the family Phreodrilidae of earthworms.


megadrile

(zoology, obsolete) A terrestrial oligochaete (worm of the superorder Megadrilacea in class Oligochaeta)


angletwitch

From Middle English angletwitche, angletwatche, from Old English angeltwiċċa, angeltweċċa, angeltwæċċa, angeltwiċċe (“fishing worm”), equivalent to angle + twitch or angle + tweak.

(rare, dialectal) An angleworm; earthworm.


feather duster worm

feather duster worm (plural feather duster worms)

Any of the Sabellidae, a family of sedentary marine polychaete tube worms with the head mostly concealed by feathery branchiae.


palolo worm

Palola viridis, a polychaete from the waters of the Pacific islands around Samoa.


spirorbid

Any polychaete worm of the genus Spirorbis.


himanimide

(organic chemistry) Any of a class of compounds, isolated from the tube worm Serpula himantoides, some of which are fungicidal


dorvilleid

Seep sediments had higher densities of ampharetid, dorvilleid, hesionid, cirratulid and lacydoniid polychaetes, whereas carbonates had more gastropods, as well as syllid, chrysopetalid and polynoid polychaetes.

2015 July 10, “Biodiversity on the Rocks: Macrofauna Inhabiting Authigenic Carbonate at Costa Rica Methane Seeps”, in PLOS ONE, →DOI:

(zoology) Any member of the family Dorvilleidae of polychaete worms.


lacydonid

Substrate differences were generally attributed to greater representation of ampharetid, dorvilleid, hesionid, cirratulid and lacydonid polychaetes in sediments and gastropods, as well as syllid, chrysopetalid and polynoid polychaetes on carbonates [SIMPER].

Any polychaete of the family Lacydoniidae.


scolecid

(zoology) Any member of the Scolecida, an infraclass of polychaete worms.


polychaeta

polychaeta (plural polychaetas or polychaetae)

polychaetas (plural)
polychaetae (plural)

The sediment type units used were: predominantly gravel (the most abundant sediment type around Punta León colony [34 ]), rocky, characterized by the presence of reefs (i.e. isolated small rocky outcrops that extend no longer that a few metres on a flat bottom [35 ]) and grasslike where more than 50% of the seabed was covered by structures such as polychaeta tubes and algae.

2015 September 15, “Selfies of Imperial Cormorants ( Phalacrocorax atriceps ): What Is Happening Underwater?”, in PLOS ONE, →DOI:

Any annelid worm of the class Polychaeta


maldanid

Those that were found were mostly deep species not present shallower (e.g. loveniid heart urchins and species of lysianassid amphipods and among the polychaetes, the amphinomid Linopherus sp., the maldanid Axiothella sp., the opheliid Antiobactrum sp. and the spionid Aurospio sp.)

2015 December 1, “Macrofaunal Patterns in and around du Couedic and Bonney Submarine Canyons, South Australia”, in PLOS ONE, →DOI:

Any polychete worm of the family Maldanidae.


spaghetti worm

Worms with either their whole bodies or filaments attached to their bodies looking like spaghetti

cestode flatworms in the order Trypanorhyncha

polychete worms in the family Terebellidae


jumping worm

Any species of worms (Megascolecidae) that jump and thrash wildly when handled, especially:


Grindal worm

After the Swedish aquarist who first cultured them.

(fishkeeping) A species of enchytraeid worm used as feed for fish, Enchytraeus buchholzi.


whiteworm

A species of enchytraeid worm commonly used as feed for fish or birds, Enchytraeus albidus.


sand tube worm

Pectinaria australis - an annelid beach worm that forms a fragile tapered tube, about 50 mm long made of grains of sand.


thorny worm

Glycera americana, a large slender species found in mud at low tide. Sometimes grows to 600 mm.


praobdellid

Any leech of the subfamily Praobdellinae.


boneworm

bone-eating snot flower worm
bone-eating snot flower worm

Any marine worm of the genus Osedax, including the bone-eating snot flower worm.


scaleworm

Any polychaete worm of the family Polynoidae


thalassematid

Any annelid of the family Thalassematidae


ozobranchid

Any turtle leech of the family Ozobranchidae


turtle leech

Any leech that feeds on the blood of turtles


water-leech

From Middle English waterleche, water leche, equivalent to water + leech.

An leech that inhabits fresh water; an aquatic leech.


land-leech

A leech that lives on land; a terrestrial leech.


sand mason worm

sand mason worm (plural sand mason worms)

Lanice conchilega, a burrowing marine polychaete worm.


sea caterpillar

sea caterpillar (plural sea caterpillars)


sea worm

Below the thunders of the upper deep;
Far far beneath in the abysmal sea,
His antient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep,
The Kraken sleepeth: […]
There hath he lain for ages and will lie
Battening upon huge seaworms in his sleep […]

1830, Alfred Tennyson, “The Kraken”, in Poems, Chiefly Lyrical:


beard worm

Any annelid worm of the family Siboglinidae, particularly those with beard-like protrusions.


penis fish

penis fish (plural penis fishes or penis fish)

penis fishes (plural)
penis fish (plural)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-penis fish.wav

From penis + fish.
* (catfish): From its apocryphal ability to enter the penis.
* (worm): From its appearance resembling a human penis.

A candiru, a parasitic catfish of the genus Vandellia, alleged to be able to enter the human urethra.

Any of certain species of Urechis worm, including:

Urechis caupo, a North American spoon worm.

Urechis unicinctus, an East Asian spoon worm.


innkeeper worm

From its habit of temporarily housing other small creatures in its burrow.


cockworm

A light glass rod is best, and for bait the Bone seems to like, more than any thing, the Green or Cock worm.

1954, Travel Magazine, volume 102, page 6:

After my second illness, being too old for “piggy-back rides”, I generally sat in 'Resting Nuke' on a seat naturally formed in a low branch of a cedar, watching relatives down in the bay with pitchforks furiously digging out long black slithery "cockworms" from the muddy sands of Sinky Bay.

1979, Nellie Eileen Musson, Mind the Onion Seed: Black "roots" Bermuda: Presented During Bermuda's First Heritage Week, May, 1979:

Old-timers will say that you have to use cockworms, but while the use of bait might be preferable to any artificial lures, bonefish will definitely take bits of fish or shrimp and the good old standby, a piece of squid, will also elicit a bite from the grey ghost.

2016 April 2, “Surprises waiting beneath the waves”, in The Royal Gazette:

(Bermuda) A type of large marine worm, Arenicola cristata, used for fishing bait.


white worm

Any annelid of the genus Enchytraeus, especially Enchytraeus albidus.


zombie worm

Synonym of boneworm (“any marine worm of the genus Osedax”)


Christmas tree worm

Christmas tree worm (plural Christmas tree worms)

A polychaete of the species Spirobranchus giganteus.


Bobbit worm

A large predatory bristle worm, Eunice aphroditois.


parchment worm

A marine polychaete worm of the genus Chaetopterus.


Asian jumping worm

Asian jumping worm (plural Asian jumping worms)

Generally endemic to Asia; that are capable of 'jumping' as high as a foot.

Any of many species, especially of genus Amynthas, of worms native to Asia, invasive elsewhere, that voraciously eat leaf litter, destroying it as a habitat for many other organisms.


fat innkeeper

So called from its shape and the fact that its tunnels often contain other animals.


questid

(zoology) Any annelid in the family Questidae.