Regulan bloodworm


 * You may be looking for the Regellian blood worm.

The Regulan bloodworm was a creature native to the Regulan system. It has been described as soft and spineless. Medically, it was quite useful for cleansing a being's lymphatic system. 

In 2151, when suffering from inadequate hibernation, Doctor Phlox suggested the use of Regulan bloodworms to filter a toxic antigenic compound in Ensign Travis Mayweather's bloodstream. Believing that fresh bloodworms would be more effective than ones from Enterprise's sickbay, Phlox contacted the starship's bridge and gave the order to travel to Regulus at maximum warp. The doctor eventually treated Mayweather with the proper medication. 

In 2153, Captain Jonathan Archer ordered Phlox to develop a memory removal serum to use on the Xindi-Primate Degra, in order to erase his short-term memories so the captain could extract information from him about the location of the Xindi superweapon. The use of a harmless Regulan bloodworm was a ruse to gain Degra's trust more easily. 

Korax, a Klingon Defense Force lieutenant and first officer of the, insultingly compared Humans to Regulan bloodworms on Deep Space Station K-7 in a conversation which immediately preceded a barroom brawl in 2268. 

Information about Regulan bloodworms was displayed by the computer as an okudagram graphic in Keiko O'Brien's schoolroom on Deep Space 9. 

A graphic of a Regulan bloodworm was also displayed in the infirmary aboard Deep Space 9. 

Background
The computer display in the schoolroom described data taken from a reference work, the Star Fleet Medical Reference Manual, coincidentally co-authored by art contributor Doug Drexler.

The reference to Regulan bloodworms by "Trouble with Tribbles" writer David Gerrold was never followed by an explanation of what they did to get the name "bloodworm", and it was never revealed which of the planets orbiting Regulus the worms originate from; according to the schoolroom display, however, the home planet of the bloodworm is Regulus II.

Gerrold pitched a script ("Blood and Fire") for Star Trek: The Next Generation involving infections of bloodworms carried by helpless victims. The story used bloodworm infection as a metaphor for the 1980s AIDS crisis, describing the same kinds of mistreatment and persecution of carriers. 

Regulanischer Blutwurm