Close view of a common teal showing the vermiculation pattern in its feathers.Detail showing a "vermiculated" background on a chasse reliquary casketArchitectural vermiculation in Paris
Vermiculation is a surface pattern of dense but irregular lines, so called from the Latin vermiculus meaning "little worm" because the shapes resemble worms, worm-casts, 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 feathers of certain birds, for which it may provide either camouflage[1] or decoration. Several species are named after this trait, either in English or by the Latin vermicularis.
It also appears in architecture 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 mosaics, opus vermiculatum was the most detailed technique, and pieces are often described as "vermiculated" in English.
^See, e.g., Iain Campbell, Sam Woods, Nick Leseberg, Birds of Australia: A Photographic Guide (2014), p. 110.
Vermiculation is a surface pattern of dense but irregular lines, so called from the Latin vermiculus meaning "little worm" because the shapes resemble...
blue-rimmed red spots, white and black edged orange fins, and dorsal vermiculation. The diet of the brook trout is restrictive to the season and location...
prominent. Underparts white to golden-buff, with distinct pattern of brown vermiculations or fine dense spots. Endemic to the Galápagos islands. Galápagos barn...
upperparts with irregular paler brown bars and vermiculation. The tail is also brown with paler vermiculation. The wing coverts have some whitish spots. Its...
Patterns in nature Reaction–diffusion system Spontaneous symmetry breaking Vermiculation Turing, Alan (1952). "The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis" (PDF). Philosophical...
brown tail. The drake's sides, back, and belly are white with fine vermiculation resembling the weave of a canvas, which gave rise to the bird's common...
be distinguished from young red-backed shrikes by the much sparser vermiculations on the underparts. BirdLife International (2016). "Lanius isabellinus"...
rump are bright metallic green. The folded wing shows black and white vermiculation. The breast is also metallic green with a white band separating it from...
rest of the body plumage is mostly white with thin and dense blackish vermiculations, appearing medium grey even at a short distance. The outer scapular...
coloration Hen feathering Imping Pluma porgy Plume hunting Sea pen Vermiculation a Males of the white-shouldered and emperor fairywrens of New Guinea...
for the unity of the decor, choreography, and music. "The old-gold vermiculation of the fantastic back-cloth seems to have been invented to a formula...
of its close relatives. The upperparts are cinnamon with fine black vermiculation and heavy stripes. The underparts are pale tawny with dusky streaks...
(Salmo trutta) and the brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis). Pronounced vermiculations in the fish's patterning gave rise to its name, evoking the stripes...
have dark vermiculation and streaks. The closed wing shows a row of large white spots. The tail has light brown stripes and vermiculation. Its underparts...
in Rome. The inset door, projecting plinth and 'v'-necked rusticated vermiculation (resembling tufa) were all derived from the base of Trajan's Column...
prominent. Underparts white to golden-buff, with distinct pattern of brown vermiculations or fine dense spots. Endemic to the Galápagos islands. Galápagos barn...
has elongated display plumes. The upperside is buff with fine black vermiculations and black arrowhead markings, and there is a conspicuous large white...
with darker vermiculations and black outer and greyish-brown inner primary remiges. The underparts are white with some olive vermiculations on the flanks...
Europe by a typically higher forehead, and the male having stronger vermiculations on the mantle and scapulars. Additionally, there is less extensive white...
and never forked. The overall colour is black with a dark pattern of vermiculations while the margin of the disc and the lower body are jet black. The standard...
spot near the base on the pectoral fin while the other fins often have vermiculations or vague spotting. This species attains a maximum total length of 22...
known (e.g. resembling rufous morph, but with black neck and faint vermiculations to the wings). This species has a similar voice to several other curassows...
of dusky, gray, and black vermiculation and streaks. Its face is dark sooty brown to brownish black with brown vermiculation. It has a faint buffy collar...
neck, a black breast and tail, and a pale grey body, marked with fine vermiculations. His bill is dark grey, with a wide blue-grey band across the middle...
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