The Worm reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Worm

This article is about animals known as worms. There are also computer worms, and the dragons known as "wyrms", sometimes spelt this way. Ringworm, so-called, is a fungous disease of the skin. See also Worms.

A worm is any of numerous relatively small elongated soft-bodied invertebrate animals. The most famous is the earthworm, a member of phylum Annelida, but there are hundreds of thousands of different species that live in a wide variety of habitats other than soil.

Originally, the word referred to any creeping or a crawling animal of any kind or size, such as a serpent, caterpillar, snail, or the like. Later this definition was narrowed to the modern definition which still includes several different animal groups. Major phyla include:

• Annelida (segmented worms)
• Sipuncula (peanut worms)
• Onychophora (velvet worms)
• Acanthocephala (spiny-headed worms)
• Nematoda (roundworms)
• Nematomorpha (horsehair worms)
• Nemertea (ribbonworms)
• Platyhelminthes (flatworms)
• Gnathostomulida (jaw worms)
• Chaetognatha (arrow worms)

Some other invertebrate groups may be considered worms. Also, many insect larvae are called worms, this is not accurate.

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