An early post today – got to work in a couple of hours so no real time to explore and write. Remember a week or two ago when i said I was going to try a new technique to try and find some wildlife? Well, I did it on Tuesday. I got some dried mustard powder, mixed it with 2 litres of water and poured into a small square of lawn. Why? To survey earthworms. There are quite a lot of species in the UK, and because they live underground we barely see them, usually they are in the beak of a bird. I thought I’d try and ID some. You can only do this by euthanising them, straightening them and then putting them in IMS, and then using a lens or microscope to count segments and find features – no wonder not many people know what they are!
What: Common Earthworm Lumbricus terrestris Linnaeus, 1758
When: 21st January 2020
Where: My garden, Poynton, Cheshire (VC58), UK
Who saw it? Me
How did I record it? Using a technique called ‘vermifuge’ and uploading the identified sighting to iRecord.
Is it bigger than a blackbird? No, blackbirds eat these. Although they are big for a worm, mine was over 20cm (200mm).
What is it? An earthworm, a very stereotypical earthworm, maybe the typical earthworm. According to Wikipedia they are the largest native earthworm species in most of Europe. They are reddish, brown in colour. That’s about it, it’s an earthworm.
A fact I have learned about this species: In some areas of Europe they are becoming endangered as they are being eaten by two invasive species of Antipodean flatworm, the New Zealand Flatworm Arthurdendyus triangulatus and the Australian Flatworm Australoplana sanguinea.
A visual representation: My mum has real phobia of worms for some reason and I know she reads this so I won’t put a picture up. But surely you all know what an earthworm looks like? They mostly all look the same…
Is it charismatic in my opinion? No, it’s a worm. They provide food for birds, and do an incredibly important job for the soil, eating a lot of detritus but they aren’t really charismatic in my opinion.
A Species a Day 