![]() The adult overwinters in soil and debris and the female enters a water body such as a swamp or a stream to lay eggs. These worms can only live near water, because parts of their life cycle take place in it. A thorough taxonomy of the genus will require a scanning electron microscope. Most of these features are used in species identification, but are not very helpful, and it is difficult to tell species apart, in general. Some species have a smooth body surface, and some may be slightly bumpy with flattened areoles. At the posterior end there are tiny bristles, sometimes arranged in a row in front of the cloaca. At the front end of the body there is a white cap and a dark collar. Microscopic features include a diagnostic character of the family, both Gordius and genus Acutogordius, the postcloacal crescent of the male, a fold in the cuticle curving around the back side of the cloaca. Besides a blunt anterior end and a slightly widened posterior end, it is featureless to the naked eye. ![]() fulgur over two meters long, and may be only about one millimeter wide. It commonly grows over a meter long, with the record length held by a specimen of G. The genus is distributed worldwide except for Antarctica, where no Nematomorpha have been recorded. ![]() ![]() It was formerly treated as the only genus in the family Gordiidae, but the genus Acutogordius is now considered as distinct. Gordius is a genus of worms in the phylum Nematomorpha, the horsehair worms. ![]()
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