Zoölogy: The Science of Animal Life: Popular Science Library, Volume XII (of 16), P. F. Collier & Son Company, 1922Ingersoll, Ernest
Science
Zoölogy: The Science of Animal Life: Popular Science Library, Volume XII (of 16), P. F. Collier & Son Company, 1922
Ingersoll, Ernest
Animals; Zoology
The earthworm or "angleworm" (that is, angler's worm, bait worm)
of the "common garden variety," to use the phrase of old-fashioned
encyclopedias, is a typical example of the first class, whose Latin
name refers to the bristles (setæ) on the flattened lower surface of
the body that serve the worm as "feet." A magnifying glass shows them
in four double rows allowing eight to each of the rings into which the
body is so plainly divided; their extremities are directed rearward,
and by their means the worm pushes itself along, and is able to cling
to and climb not only the walls of its burrow but vertical surfaces
when not too smooth. Thus they are found frequently on roofs and in
other elevated and surprising places, to which they have crawled in
the night, when, as well as in warm, rainy weather, they are likely to
wander a great deal. The long and greatly extensible and elastic body
tapers almost equally at each end, but the head end is that which goes
forward in crawling, and a lens will show a mouth on its lower surface,
beneath a sort of thick lip. A long gullet leads into an expansion
called the crop, and that into a large, tough-walled stomach, beyond
which an intestine leads to the last segment. The thirty-third to
thirty-seventh segments are swollen, forming the "belt" (clitellum),
which denotes maturity, but seems to have no special functions. The
senses are few and dull. No eyes exist, nor sense of hearing, but
the skin is extremely sensitive to vibrations, and to bright light,
as might be expected in a nocturnal animal. The sense of taste is
discriminating. The eggs are extruded in such a way as to form a
glutinous ring about the body, which, when complete, is slipped over
the head of the worm, and left to hatch in warm soil under a stone.
Earthworms live underground in burrows that are sunk well below the
frost line. In digging they work head downward, gnawing--although they
have no hard jaws--and swallowing the earth that is not easily crowded
aside and then throwing it out and perhaps heaping it up as "castings."
The tunnel must be wide enough to let its occupant turn around in it,
and it ends in a deep chamber in which one or more worms may pass the
winter without freezing. These worms naturally seek a loose, damp soil,
not only for ease of working, but because moisture is a necessity,
as they breathe through their skin; hence they abound in meadows and
cultivated soil, and are not found on high, dry plains. During the
day they lie near the surface, often with the head just protruding.
Here they are discovered by sharp-eyed birds and garter snakes, and
sacrificed by thousands, notwithstanding the strength with which they
hang on to their retreats by the tail. When it retires to the depths of
its burrow this worm plugs the mouth of the tunnel with leaves which
it draws always by the base, exhibiting considerable intelligence in
manipulating the various shapes of leaves to that end.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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