I'm off to listen to Iron Maiden's _To Tame A Land_. Udhay
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20060206/worm_ani_print.html Huge, Lily-Scented Worm Found By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News Feb. 10, 2006 A gigantic white worm that smells like lilies was recently unearthed in the state of Washington. The invertebrate, called the giant Palouse earthworm because it can grow to around three feet long, had not been seen in nearly two decades and is believed to be extremely rare, according to a University of Idaho press release. The worm may be suffering from competition from non-native species, revealing that even underground soil dwellers are vulnerable to ecosystem disruption. UI soil science doctoral candidate Yaniria Sanchez-de Leon found the worm while digging in a 10-inch-square and 12-inch-deep pit of dirt located at Washington State University's Smoot Hill Ecological Preserve near Palouse, Wash.. The area is part of the Palouse prairie, which covers approximately two million acres across north central Idaho and southeastern Washington. Sanchez-de Leon noticed the worm immediately because "it's very white and the anterior part is pink near the mouth." She told Discovery News, "I suspected it could be the giant Palouse earthworm when I found the worm, but I thought that it was too short." She added, "I knew about the earthworm because it has been reported from previous earthworm studies to be a native of the area. I felt really excited when I found it!" While she did not detect much lily fragrance from this specimen, she said prior reports made note of the pleasant smell, which hasn't yet been explained. The worm's scientific name, Driloleirus americanus, means "lily-like worm." Researcher Frank Smith first spotted the earthworm in 1897 and described it as living deep in the fertile Palouse soil. During the summer months, the giant Palouse burrows up to 15 feet deep to stay cool and moist. It conserves water through kidney-like organs called nephridia. While many Americans would be startled to find a three-foot-long worm, its relative in Australia, Megascolides australis, may grow to 15 feet. Size does not appear to help its defense against European earthworms that entered the Palouse prairie by becoming stowaways on plants that settlers brought into the region. "Competition among native and exotic earthworm species could be for the same food sources," Sanchez-de Leon said. "Bigger size doesn't necessarily give a competitive advantage to natives." Jodi Johnson-Maynard, a UI assistant professor of soil and water management, told Discovery News that she agrees the newly found worm is a giant Palouse. She hopes future studies will better document the invertebrate's behavior and habitat range. James B. "Ding" Johnson, the head of the UI Plant, Soil and Entomological Sciences Department, was the last researcher to unearth the worm in 1988. He too agrees the new specimen is a giant Palouse. Johnson is encouraged by the discovery, because the worm Sanchez-de Leon found was 10 miles away from the late 80s dig site. This suggests the worm, although low in numbers, may still exist over a wide territory. Johnson also told Discovery News that the worm has another "appealing feature that has not been widely reported." He said, "When Paul Johnson (a colleague present at the 80s dig) and I held the worms in our hands to examine them, they 'spit' when prodded. We did not analyze the material, but it appeared to be mucus and gut contents, so they were probably actually regurgitating rather than spitting." Johnson added, "It appeared to be a defensive behavior." Sanchez-de Leon said "it is very easy to hurt" this apparently skittish worm. She and the other researchers estimate that human activities have destroyed all but approximately one percent of the worm's original population.
