An avid gold panner in Kamloops was at Tranquille Creek recently when something strange caught his eye and he took a video of it as it coiled and weaved its way across the rocks.

Called a horsehair worm, it’s only the second one Jamie Pearce has found during his many years exploring lakes and rivers.

“These things are such amazing and bizarre creatures, I knew what this one was right away,” Pearce told iNFOnews.ca in a message. “I thought the first one I saw was a piece of wire until it started moving.”

Named because they look like horse hairs, the worms are invertebrates that can grow up to 70 centimetres long with a mouth on one end and a vent on the other, according to Enclopedia.com.

They are also called Gordian worms after a knot created by King Gordius of Phrygia, because they can be seen knotted with other worms during breeding season in the spring.

The males impregnate the females and die. She lays stringy masses containing millions of eggs and dies. The larvae are ingested by insects and live in them as parasites where they develop into worms.

If the insect lands in the water, the worm emerges into the water. Worms that exit insect hosts on land do not have a good chance of survival.

In Pearce’s video, the strange looking worm can be seen coiling and uncoiling its long body to the sound of rap music.