Worms have 5 different faces

A new species of ascaris discovered on the island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean develops five faces with separate mouth sections to digest different foods.

According to Nature World News, the unique worm lives inside the fig tree . At first, researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Development Biology found that they found five worms because their mouths were so different. However, using gene sequencing techniques, they concluded that the worms belong to the same species and named them Pristionchus borbonicus. The study was published on January 1 on the Max Planck Institute website.

Two of the 5 mouth morphologies of Ascaris worms Pristionchus borbonicus.(Photo: Max Planck Institute).

"Different oral morphologies of Pristionchus borbonicus are dedicated to digesting bacteria, yeast or other roundworm species. Obviously, they are distributed in different ecological areas within the fig tree , " Ralf Sommer , Head of the Department of Evolutionary Biology, co-author of the study, said. "With this specialization, animals can exploit many types of food and survive in times of unstable food sources by changing their mouth morphology."

Previously, researchers found that the worms of Pristionchus species living on the beetle backs developed two different mouth types depending on the available food source and the living environment. A wide and short mouth is suitable for hunting, while the other is long and narrow, allowing animals to eat bacteria.

The findings in the new study provide an example of separate evolution in the same species. Similar roundworm species living on fig trees also exist in Vietnam and South Africa. According to scientists, they approach fig trees through pollinated bees.