The first year I arrived in Oklahoma, I was walking my dogs in the winter. I noticed hairworms on sidewalks, street gutters and lawns after heavy bouts of rain.

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I have since visited 20 sites and found hairworms at 18. At each of these locations, I collected earthworms. In the lab, we dissected these earthworms and found that they contained cysts of these hairworms suggesting that females are laying eggs in/on the soil. Subsequent laboratory infections have found that we can infected earthworms with Gordius sp. eggs by placing them in soil.

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Even more fascinating is that when we examine the eggs of this species, they have a double-membrane egg-a trait that has not been found in any species so far.