gordius

from WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)

Gordius
    n 1: legendary king of ancient Phrygia who was said to be
         responsible for the Gordian knot

from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

Gordius \Gor"di*us\, n. [NL. See {Gordian}, 1.] (Zool.)
   A genus of long, slender, nematoid worms, parasitic in
   insects until near maturity, when they leave the insect, and
   live in water, in which they deposit their eggs; -- called
   also {hair eel}, {hairworm}, and {hair snake}, from the
   absurd, but common and widely diffused, notion that they are
   metamorphosed horsehairs.
   [1913 Webster]