The largest worm in humans: photo of a huge individual. The largest and longest worms in humans

Large worms can provoke intestinal obstruction, diseases of the genitourinary system, congestion, the development of a hernia, obesity due to a sharp increase in appetite. If infection is observed in children, they may study poorly, be inhibited or overactive. It is very difficult to detect helminths during traditional tests, so it is necessary not to forget about preventive measures.

Wide tapeworm

Infection with helminths of this species occurs by eating raw fish infected with tapeworm larvae. Once in the human body, the worms grow into adults after five weeks.

• With mild infection, the patient feels discomfort in the abdomen, loses appetite and weight.
• In case of severe invasion, a person experiences an acute lack of vitamin B12, which leads to anemia and even subacute combined degeneration of the spinal cord.

The worms reach the adult state after three months. Worms such as bovine tapeworm can for a long time remain unnoticed, due to which they live in the human body for up to twenty years.

1. Helminths negatively affect the walls of the small intestine and lead to disruption of the secretory and motor functions of the digestive system.
2. An infected person feels a cramping pain, similar to the pain during the inflammatory process of appendicitis.
3. If the worms actively secrete segments, the patient feels itching in the anus.
4. In addition to paroxysmal pain in the abdominal area, a person may experience nausea, vomiting, a weak state of the whole body, or a sharp increase in appetite.

In rare cases, helminthiasis may cause shortness of breath, nose bleed, discomfort in the area of ​​the right side of the sternum. Massive invasion often leads to intestinal obstruction.

If a woman is pregnant, bovine tapeworm can cause miscarriage.

Worms like pork tapeworm, are widespread throughout the world. The adult provokes the development of taeniasis, and the larvae cause the infectious disease cysticercosis.

1. Subcutaneous tissue;
2. Skeletal muscles;

1. Visceral organs;
2. Central nervous system;
3. Spinal cord.

Pork roundworm

Echinococcus larvae themselves are small in size, but they form a fluid-filled cyst around themselves, which often reaches a huge size. The diameter of the cyst can reach several tens of centimeters and weigh about 10 kilograms. The bubble itself contains about 10 liters of liquid.

Infection with helminthiasis occurs through contact and household contact, when communicating with infected animals, eating dirty berries, vegetables and fruits.

When a cyst forms, a person may experience:

1. Liver damage in the form of jaundice;
2. Impaired lung function and abscess formation;
3. Increased intracranial pressure in the brain area.

In means mass media Many cases of worms of record sizes being discovered in humans have been reported. The information is accompanied by photos and detailed description symptoms of infection.

The first reaction to the question: “What is the longest animal?”, I want to answer - a giraffe. After thinking a little, you remember about the whale. Some might argue that there is a blue jellyfish that is even bigger. All these are misconceptions. Without any doubt, the record holders in size will be worms.

Before late XVIII A fairly large type of the animal kingdom was classified under this name. Later, zoologists disbanded it and created a number of new types.

Classification of worms

Today the Animal Kingdom includes a large group, under common name- Protostomes, which do not form a separate rank. What are commonly called worms are united by 8 types. Among them - Hairworms, Priapulids, Sipunculids, as well as Gnotostomulids with Acanthocephalans, are of little interest to us. But the remaining 3 are worth paying attention to:

Everyone knows earthworms. These garden workers never tire of plowing the soil, constantly aerating it. Few people have studied the question of what the largest earthworms are. There is, perhaps, no area in the world where these ringed animals are not found. At favorable conditions live up to 10 years. Only by the sixth year is this individual able to lay eggs. The larvae appear another year later. All this time they are growing. On the Australian continent there are 3-meter giants. The photos of the world's largest earthworms are simply amazing. At first glance, they can be confused with a snake.

Medicine knows the fact that 17-meter-long worms were removed from the human body. And it's not the biggest

The photo of such a giant is amazing. The broad tapeworm can live up to 20 years, constantly increasing in size. The carrier is deprived of the opportunity to live normally, his body is depleted to the limit. Infection most often occurs through poorly processed fish.

Bull tapeworm

A very unpleasant animal lives in the tropics - the Dragon. The worm reaches humans through water, gnaws through the intestinal wall and settles in various organs. After reaching sexual maturity, females move to the subcutaneous tissue.

As soon as a person is near the water, leaning out, the worm throws out numerous larvae. With age, such animals grow up to 80 cm. Numerous, easily opened pustules form on the human body, which cause unpleasant itching and serve as a site for secondary infection.

Human roundworm

Roundworms also use humans as a carrier. These animals are not gigantic in size, the maximum size is no more than 40 cm. But their fertility is amazing. The female is capable of laying up to 240 thousand eggs every day. Eggs that come out are very difficult to kill. They can wait for their owner for up to 12 years. Under favorable conditions, they do not need an intermediate carrier. The larvae develop well on their own without leaving the egg. They reach humans through poorly washed vegetables and fruits, as well as contaminated water. They emerge from the eggs, to begin with, and begin to migrate through the insides of a person.

The larvae can be found in the heart, liver, lungs and even the brain. They are caused by a wide variety of diseases. After a certain stage of development, they return through saliva to the stomach, where they grow into adult animals. The circle closes.

The largest earthworm is the Austrian giant earthworm (in Latin Megascolides australis, in English Giant earthworm). From afar, this worm looks like a long and thin snake. The giant Austrian worm is the largest invertebrate in the world. Such worms can reach a length of 3 and even 4 meters. The body diameter at this length will be 2-3 cm.

The Australian worm is found only in the hills of South West Gipslen (Australia). Such a worm can live up to 10 years. Unless, of course, some avid fisherman decides to fish with them.

The main breeding season for such worms is spring and summer. Such worms are hermaphrodites, which means they have both male and female reproductive systems. But nevertheless, a couple is necessary for the appearance of offspring. Each of the worms fertilizes each other and then they both lay a cocoon.

Juveniles of these large earthworms are 20 cm long; after five years they reach their maximum size and can begin to reproduce.

The home for these worms is a two-meter hole, which they dig for themselves; the main criterion when choosing soil is its moisture content. When moving through tunnels, the giant Australian worm can reach enormous speeds, while it will create a specific gurgling sound. The high speed of worms in their burrows is achieved due to the fact that they cover the walls of their burrows with a special viscous mucus, which makes these walls smoother.

80 cm long, 2.5 cm thick, no legs, crawling on the ground - what is it? You guessed wrong, it's not a snake - it's a worm. Giant Gippsland, found in the town of Gippsland in south-eastern Australia, is the largest earthworm in the world. If such a worm stretches to its full length, it can reach two meters.

These creeping giants are surprisingly gentle creatures. Finding them is quite difficult, since they spend most of their lives deep underground, and the higher the water content in the soil, the easier it is for them to breathe. Their burrows are quite deep - often these worms live at a depth of 7.5–13 cm underground, sometimes heavy rains force them to the surface. Their burrows can also be found in places where there was a recent landslide.

Gippslands are quite fragile - careless handling can kill them. Only a certain type of moist soil is suitable for them to live. If you walk on the ground above their water-filled burrows, they will react to the vibration from your steps - they will begin to crawl and make squelching sounds that are quite easy to hear. So even if you consider that giant gypsums are quite rare, you will know that they are near you.

Giant Gippslands lay huge cocoon eggs that look like brown bean pods. The worm lays only one egg at a time, and it takes a whole year for it to hatch. Giant Gippsland babies reach 18 cm in length, and in order to grow to maximum length, it takes them about five years. It is not known exactly how long they live, but preliminary estimates are 20 years.

Despite their impressive size, there are few giant Gippslands in Australia due to the fact that their houses are easy to destroy and they reproduce slowly. Worms are listed in the Red Book as a vulnerable endangered species.

When a fisherman digs for worms for an upcoming fishing trip, he, of course, wants to find something bigger. But what would he say if he discovered a 3-meter-long worm underground? Meanwhile, such worms are found in Australia. True, no one hooks them - their numbers are already too small, so they are under state protection.

Australian giant earthworm (lat. Megascolides australis) is the largest of all known underground invertebrates in the world. It lives exclusively in Gippsland, a rural region of Victoria with an area of ​​just 1000 square meters. km. And even then, you can’t find it on every corner here - like a real earthworm, it chooses clayey and moist soil to live near water bodies.

Or maybe it was earlier - when the entire south of modern Gippsland was covered with dense eucalyptus forests, giant worms there was a place to settle down. However, the trees were cut down to make way for Agriculture, and the soil itself was constantly disturbed: they plowed, planted seeds, fertilized and plowed again. This place has become uncomfortable for earthworm of this size, so he had to settle on the remaining small and isolated remnants of the forest.

An adult giant Australian worm reaches a length of 2.5-3 meters with a body thickness of 2-3 cm and a weight of about 700 g. It is not surprising that from a distance it can be confused with a long, emaciated snake. However, upon closer examination, the segments characteristic of all earthworms are clearly visible, of which Australian giant no less than three hundred.

Giant earthworms rarely crawl to the surface - they spend their entire lives in long underground tunnels that they dig themselves. Usually the worm digs the ground with the front part of its body, however, if the soil is too hard, it passes it through the intestines and throws it out in heaps to the surface. One individual can process 500-700 g of soil per day.

It's funny that when moving underground, the giant worm behaves very noisily - smacking, gurgling or buzzing. And all because the walls of its tunnels are covered with a special secretion that facilitates sliding. Australian earthworms breed in spring and summer. They are hermaphrodites, but require a mate for successful fertilization. After mating, each partner lays eggs in a pre-constructed cocoon.

The eggs of the giant earthworm mature and develop over the course of a whole year. The hatched cubs are no different from their parents in anything except their size. The length of their body, by our standards, is no longer small - 20 cm, but only after 5 years they grow to their final size and begin to reproduce. The maximum lifespan of giant Australian worms is 10 years.

Residents of Australia greatly respect their unusual neighbors. In their honor they even established an annual international festival“Karmai” (the name of the worm in the dialect of local aborigines). In addition, in 1985, a hundred-meter museum attraction dedicated to the giant earthworm was built.