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Photo#1800326
Nematode (beneficial or pest)?

Nematode (beneficial or pest)?
Indianapolis, Carrie Carter County, Indiana, USA
April 3, 2020
While digging in flower bed noticed these small worm-like organisms. Did some research and believe they are nematodes. Also learned that some are beneficial and others are pests. Can you help me determine what kind this is?

Images of this individual: tag all
Nematode (beneficial or pest)? Nematode (beneficial or pest)?

Frassed
Moved from ID Request.

The consensus seems to be that this is not an arthropod. The images will be visible here for at least 30 days before being removed by the system.

Looks like a Potworm
An annelid as Ken suggested, family Enchytraeidae.

https://www.globalsoilbiodiversity.org/new-blog/2018/11/6/enchytraeids

Nematodes are also generally difficult to ID, they don't have much going on in terms of distinguishable characteristics. Usually they have to be slide mounted and viewed with phase contrast so you can look at things like the shape of head, number of annules, body length, length of stylet (needle like mouthparts often seen in plant pest species), shape of stylet knob, structure of lateral fields, presence/absence and shape of spermatheca (sperm holding organ in females), shape of female tail terminus, shape and length of spicule (needle-like mating structures of males) and gubernaculum (a hardened or sclerotized structure in the wall that guides the protrusion of the spicule).

Fun fact, since nematodes are in the Ecdysozoa (organisms that develop with an exoskeleton they must molt, the process of molting is ecdysis) they're more closely related to insects than true worms.

They appear to be segmented.
If that's the case, then they wouldn't be nematodes. They could be annelids of some sort, or perhaps even fly larvae. Hold on to see what others have to say.

If they are nematodes or annelids, then they would not be covered by BugGuide, which deals only with arthropods.

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