Identification?

Someone at work sent this pic around asking for help identifying it. He had found it in his front yard this morning....

I cracked up - it is clearly a worm!

Where has this guy been his whole life that he does not recognize a worm?

But that got me thinking...I guess not everyone has a worm bin and get to look at them everyday.

Here is a quick lesson on worms:

In terms of animal complexity about half of all animal species on Earth are less complex than segmented worms, while about half are more complex. Of course we humans are the most complex.

ARE EARTHWORMS IMPORTANT?

Certainly what earthworms do isn't simple in ecological terms. The great naturalist Charles Darwin, after making a careful study of them, wrote this:

"...it may be doubted if there are any other animals which have played such an important part in the history of the world as these lowly organized creatures." "History of the world," he said!

One important thing that earthworms do is to plow the soil by tunneling through it. Their tunnels provide the soil with passageways through which air and water can circulate, and that's important because soil microorganisms and plant roots need air and water just like we do. Without some kind of plowing, soil becomes compacted, air and water can't circulate in it, and plant roots can't penetrate it.

One study showed that each year on an acre (0.4 hectare) of average cultivated land, 16,000 pounds (7200 kg) of soil pass through earthworm guts and are deposited atop the soil -- 30,000 pounds (13,500 kg) in really wormy soil! Charles Darwin himself calculated that if all the worm excreta resulting from ten years of worm work on one acre of soil were spread over that acre, it would be two inches thick (5.08 cm).

This is something we should appreciate because earthworm droppings -- called castings when deposited atop the ground -- are rich in nitrogen, calcium, magnesium, and phosphorus, and these are all important nutrients for healthy, prospering ecosystems.

I used castings in my tomato plants this year and the plants grew like crazy!