Bloodworm

Bloodworm

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Arthropoda

Class: Insecta

Order: Diptera

Family: Chironomidae

Bloodworms are the aquatic or semiaquatic larval stage of small flies called midges. They are very important food sources to many different organisms. They are often used as indicators of the health of a water system as different species are able to survive different levels of pollution. Confusingly enough, bloodworms are also the common name of a whole different group of organisms (Phylum: Annelida, class: Polychaeta) that look similar (think thin red wiggly thing!) but belong to the true segmented worms like your everyday earthworm. These bloodworms tend to be marine, though, and are not what we are seeing here!