Vermiculation is a surface pattern of dense but irregular lines, so called from the

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

meaning "little worm" because the shapes resemble

worm Worms are many different distantly related bilateria, bilateral animals that typically have a long cylindrical tube-like body, no limb (anatomy), limbs, and usually no eyes. Worms vary in size from microscopic to over in length for marine ...

worm cast A worm cast is a structure created by worms, typically on soils such as those on beaches that gives the appearance of multiple worms. They are also used to trace the location of one or more worms. References External links Soil science ...

s, or worm tracks in mud or wet sand. The word may be used in a number of contexts for patterns that have little in common. The adjective vermiculated is more often used than the noun. Vermiculation naturally occurs in patterns on a wide variety of species, for example in the

feather Feathers are epidermal growths that form a distinctive outer covering, or plumage, on both avian (bird) and some non-avian dinosaurs and other archosaurs. They are the most complex integumentary structures found in vertebrates and an exa ...

s of certain

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

s, for which it may provide either

camouflage Camouflage is the use of any combination of materials, coloration, or illumination for concealment, either by making animals or objects hard to see, or by disguising them as something else. Examples include the leopard's spotted coat, the b ...

See, e.g., Iain Campbell, Sam Woods, Nick Leseberg, ''Birds of Australia: A Photographic Guide'' (2014), p. 110. or decoration. Several species are named after this trait, either in English or by the Latin ''vermicularis''. It also appears in

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...

as a form of rustication where the stone is cut with a pattern of wandering lines. In metalwork, vermiculation is used to form a type of background found in Romanesque enamels, especially on chasse reliquary caskets. In this case the term is used for what is in fact a dense pattern of regular ornament using plant forms and tendrils. In Ancient Roman

mosaic A mosaic () is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/Mortar (masonry), mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and ...

s, ''

opus vermiculatum Opus vermiculatum is a method of laying mosaic tesserae to emphasise an outline around a subject. This can be of one or more rows and may also provide background contrast, e.g. as a shadow, sometimes with ''opus tessellatum''. The outline created ...

'' was the most detailed technique, and pieces are often described as "vermiculated" in English.

Species named "vermiculated"

;Several species of

owl Owls are birds from the order Strigiformes (), which includes over 200 species of mostly solitary and nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vision, binaural hearing, sharp talons, and feathers a ...

s are named for their vermiculated patterns: * Vermiculated fishing-owl (''Scotopelia bouvieri''), an owl species found in Africa * Vermiculated eagle-owl or greyish eagle-owl (''Bubo cinerascens''), an owl species *

Vermiculated screech-owl The vermiculated screech owl (''Megascops guatemalae vermiculatus''), is a subspecies of Middle American screech owl, or possibly separate species of owl in the family Strigidae. It is found in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Panama.HBW and BirdLife ...

(''Megascops guatemalae''), an owl species ;Other: * Vermiculated angelfish, a

Chaetodontoplus ''Chaetodontoplus'' is a genus of marine angelfishes in the family Pomacanthidae. They are found in the Indo-Pacific The Indo-Pacific is a vast biogeographic region of Earth. In a narrow sense, sometimes known as the Indo-West Pacific or ...

marine angelfish * Vermiculate parrotfish * Vermiculate shrew or Xanthippe's shrew (Crocidura xantippe), Africa * Vermiculated tree frog (Leptopelis vermiculatus), Africa *

Vermiculated spinefoot The vermiculated spinefoot (''Siganus vermiculatus''), also known as maze rabbitfish, scribbled spinefoot or vermiculate rabbitfish, is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a rabbitfish belonging to the Family (biology), family Siganidae. Like al ...

(''Siganus vermiculatus''), also known as Maze Rabbitfish, is a species of

rabbitfish Rabbitfishes or spinefoots, genus ''Siganus'', are perciform fishes in the family (biology), family Siganidae. It is the only Extant taxon, extant genus in its family and has 29 species. In some now obsolete classifications, the species having ...

Species named ''vermicularis''

Some species have patterns that look like little worms, others actually are little worms. Some of these names have now been superseded. * Alcinoe vermicularis, in the

Ocyropsidae Ocyropsidae is a family of ctenophores. Taxonomy The family Ocyropsidae contains the following species: *Genus ''Alcinoe Alcinoe (; Ancient Greek: Ἀλκινόη ''Alkinóē'') is the name that is attributed to three women in Greek mytho ...

family of ctenophores * Alnus vermicularis, an

alder Alders are trees of the genus ''Alnus'' in the birch family Betulaceae. The genus includes about 35 species of monoecious trees and shrubs, a few reaching a large size, distributed throughout the north temperate zone with a few species ex ...

tree *

Blutaparon vermiculare ''Gomphrena vermicularis'', with common names silverhead, silverweed, saltweed, and samphire, is a species of plant in the family Amaranthaceae, native to the Americas from the southeastern United States to Mexico, Central America Central ...

(or Gomphrena vermicularis, Philoxerus vermicularis), plant in the Americas *

Burmagomphus ''Burmagomphus'' is a genus of dragonfly in the family Gomphidae. It contains the following species: *''Burmagomphus arboreus'' *''Burmagomphus arthuri'' *''Burmagomphus arvalis'' *''Burmagomphus bashanensis'' *''Burmagomphus cauvericus'' * ...

vermicularis, a dragonfly *

Chelonistele vermicularis ''Coelogyne vermicularis'' is a species of orchid in the genus ''Coelogyne ''Coelogyne'' is a genus of 594 species, which are sympodial epiphytes from the family Orchidaceae, distributed across India, China, Indonesia and the Fiji islands, wit ...

, a species of orchid *

Clavaria vermicularis ''Clavaria fragilis'', commonly known as fairy fingers, white worm coral, or white spindles, is a species of fungus in the family Clavariaceae. It is synonymous with ''Clavaria vermicularis''. The fungus is the type species of the genus ''Cla ...

a fungus *

Cobelura vermicularis ''Cobelura vermicularis'' is a species of longhorn beetle of the subfamily Lamiinae. It was described by Theodor Franz Wilhelm Kirsch in 1889 and is known from Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwes ...

, a species of longhorn beetles *

Dendrolaelaps ''Dendrolaelaps'' is a genus of mites in the family Digamasellidae. There are more than 170 described species in ''Dendrolaelaps''. The genus was first described in 1915 by James Nathaniel Halbert.Halbert, J.N. 1915. Clare Island Survey. 39. Acar ...

vermicularis, a mite species * Encheliophis vermicularis, a worm pearlfish species *

Enterobius vermicularis The pinworm (species ''Enterobius vermicularis''), also known as threadworm (in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand) or seatworm, is a parasitic worm. It is a nematode (roundworm) and a common intestinal parasite or helminth, especi ...

, a parasitic nematode, the human threadworm or pinworm * Entomacrodus vermiculatus, a species of combtooth

blenny Blennies (from the Greek and , mucus, slime) are a diverse clade of ray-finned fish in the suborder Blennioidei of the percomorph order Blenniiformes. They inhabit marine, brackish, and occasionally freshwater habitats, and generally share sim ...

native to the Indian Ocean * Lacrymaria vermicularis, a

ciliate The ciliates are a group of alveolates characterized by the presence of hair-like organelles called cilia, which are identical in structure to flagellum, eukaryotic flagella, but are in general shorter and present in much larger numbers, with a ...

protist A protist ( ) or protoctist is any eukaryotic organism that is not an animal, land plant, or fungus. Protists do not form a natural group, or clade, but are a paraphyletic grouping of all descendants of the last eukaryotic common ancest ...

species * Medicago vermicularis, a plant now usually called

Medicago coronata ''Medicago coronata'', the crown medick, is a plant species of the genus ''Medicago''. It is found throughout the Mediterranean basin. It forms a symbiotic relationship with the bacterium '' Sinorhizobium meliloti'', which is capable of nitrogen ...

* Ophiobatrachus vermicularis, a salamander * Philedone vermicularis, a moth * Pseudanthus vermicularis, Australian plant * Sepia vermicularis, known as the common cuttlefish or ink-fish, endemic to South Africa *

Serpula vermicularis ''Serpula vermicularis'', known by common names including the calcareous tubeworm, fan worm, plume worm or red tube worm, is a species of segmented marine polychaete worm in the Family (biology), family Serpulidae. It is the type species of the ...

, a segmented marine worm * Takifugu vermicularis, the Purple puffer, a species of Asian pufferfish * Thamnolia vermicularis, a fungus species in Australia *

Turritella vermicularis ''Turritella vermicularis'' is an extinct species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family (biology), family Turritellidae. These sea snails lived from the Miocene to the Pliocene epoch, approximately from 37.2 to 2.588 million y ...

, an extinct species of sea snail *

Typhlops vermicularis ''Xerotyphlops vermicularis'', the European blind snake, European worm snake, Eurasian blind snake, or Eurasian worm snake, is a species of snake in the genus ''Xerotyphlops.'' Despite its common name, the range of the European blind snake ranges ...

, the European blind snake or European worm snake, no larger than a worm

Other uses

* Vermiculate atrophoderma ( Atrophodermia vermiculata) a genetic skin disease * A variant form of rustication (architecture) The

rock texture In geology, texture or rock microstructure refers to the relationship between the materials of which a rock is composed. The broadest textural classes are crystalline (in which the components are intergrown and interlocking crystals), fragmental ...

myrmekite is composed of vermicular ''worm-like'' intergrowths of

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The Atom, atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen Tetrahedral molecular geometry, tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tet ...

and

feldspar Feldspar ( ; sometimes spelled felspar) is a group of rock-forming aluminium tectosilicate minerals, also containing other cations such as sodium, calcium, potassium, or barium. The most common members of the feldspar group are the ''plagiocl ...

References

{{wiktionary Camouflage patterns Ornaments Limoges enamel