Earth Worms Anyone?

Worms Anyone? Earl Plato

Usually I am looking up in the trees or the sky for birds. This wet day I am looking down. Why? It’s spring and the ground is wet. M. Wayland under the title, Wonderful Worms, wrote in the latest Wildlife magazine the following: “They may not be lovely to look at but earthworms are truly a gardener’s best friends, aerating and enriching the soil.” A worm, is a worm, is just a worm. Not so. Wayland’s article is well presented with good illustrations about ten worm species. I am going to talk about our most familiar Canadian worms. I want to go fishing with the guys come the long weekend in May. So I did a little research, First the Night Crawler or Dew worm (Lumbricus terrestris) us the largest earthworm ib Canada stretching up to 300 millimetres long!
I believe that’s over ten inches. It can live up to ten years! Colours? It may be dark brown, dark red or dark purple. It has a flattened body unlike some other large worms. Its head and sexual organs are more than two centimetres apart. That’s unusual. It forms deep vertical burrows and is found from British Columbia to Newfoundland. Going fishing? Find some of these dew worms in the early morning. Good luck with the night crawlers. Next are little guys, the Red Wriggler Worm. I knew them as manure worms. Some call them tiger worms (Eisenia foetida) and they measure only 36 to 60 millimetres in length. They have dark-and lighter-red stripes hence the ‘tigrt’ label. They are found from British Columbia to Prince Edward Island. Wayland says, “… close to human habitation. Are you a fisherman? Then go for the Red Marsh Worm. Do you remember the worm farm on the way to Hamilton on Highway #20? Lumbricus rubellus is well known as a fish bait species. It has been cultivated on an industrial scale. It is a medium-sized dank-red worm generally less than 60 millimetres. However, they can grow to 150 millimetres. Found from west to east coast. The last of my worms is the Canadian Worm , the greyish (Aporrectodea tuberculation) is widely distributed and common in Canada. It’s found usually in wet areas where there is a high concentration of organic matter. It usually measures 90 to 150 millimetres in length. I will look for this one in Marcy Woods this spring.
Writer’s note: The prominent swelling near the head is the clitella which contains both male and female structures, hence earthworms are hermaphroditic. They do not have eyes, ears or noses. They do have a sort of tongue that helps them to gather information about their environment. They breathe through their skin. Look for different worms this spring. Why not?