screwworm

English

Etymology

From screw +‎ worm.

Noun

screwworm (plural screwworms)

  1. A larva of a blowfly of species Cochliomyia hominivorax (New World screwworm fly) or Chrysomya bezziana (Old World screwworm fly), of tribe Chrysomyini, parasitic in animals and sometimes humans, distinctive in eating living flesh of mammals, unlike most maggots, which eat only dead flesh.
    • 2025 August 25, “First human case of flesh-eating screwworm parasite confirmed in US”, in The Guardian‎[1], sourced from Reuters, →ISSN, archived from the original on 25 August 2025:
      A sample of screwworms collected in the morning are displayed at a veterinary clinic in Tapachula, Chiapas state, Mexico on 4 July 2025. […] The government’s confirmation of a screwworm case comes just over a week after US Department of Agriculture (USDA) secretary, Brooke Rollins, traveled to Texas to announce plans to build a sterile fly facility there as part of efforts to combat the pest.

Derived terms

References

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