New Nematode Worm Can Change Mouth to Match Form of Nourishment
Posted on July 27, 2013
Biologists in Tubingen working with Ralf J. Sommer have named a newly discovered millimeter long threadworm after physicist Max Planck. The nematode worm, Pristionchus maxplancki, was found inside a stag beetle specimen. The worm can change the shape of its mouth depending on the form of its nourishment.
There are two clearly differentiated mouth variants for every Pristionchus species - narrow and long, or broad and short. It is not the genes that determine whether an individual worm evolves with a narrow or a broad mouth, but the tiny worm's environment and available food supply. The newly discovered P. maxplancki also occurs in both of these forms, but displays several additional characteristic features in its oral cavity.
The worms do not harm their beetle hosts. They simply hold out in a dormant state until the beetle dies. After the beetle dies the worms nourish themselves from the cadaver of the beetle and from the fungi and bacteria that grow on the insect's remains.