Searchers shovel Northwest dirt seeking giant worm

[Kadie]

Searchers shovel Northwest dirt seeking giant worm
By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS, Associated Press Writer Nicholas K. Geranios, Associated Press Writer – Sun Jul 12, 1:45 am ET

MOSCOW, Idaho – The giant Palouse earthworm has taken on mythic qualities in this vast agricultural region that stretches from eastern Washington into the Idaho panhandle — its very name evoking the fictional sandworms from "Dune" or those vicious creatures from the movie "Tremors."

The worm is said to secrete a lily-like smell when handled, spit at predators, and live in burrows 15 feet deep. There have been only a handful of sightings.

But scientists hope to change that this summer with researchers scouring the Palouse region in hopes of finding more of the giant earthworms. Conservationists also want the Obama administration to protect the worm as an endangered species, even though little research has been done on it.

The worm may be elusive, but there's no doubt it exists, said Jodi Johnson-Maynard, a University of Idaho professor who is leading the search for the worm. To prove it, she pulled out a glass tube containing the preserved remains of a fat, milky-white worm. One of Johnson-Maynard's graduate students found this specimen in 2005, and it is the only confirmed example of the species.

The worm in the tube is about 6 inches long, well short of the 3 feet that early observers of the worms in the late 1890s described. Documented collections of the species, known locally as GPE, have occurred only in 1978, 1988, 1990 and 2005.

more...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090712/ap_on_sc/us_giant_palouse_earthworm



In this photo made Tuesday, July 7, 2009, the only verified sample of a giant Palouse Earthworm specimen is preserved in this test tube, as seen at the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho. The straight line in the worm segment on the bottom is from a dissection done to study the worm.
(AP Photo/Dean Hare)

[shraby]

1. Why don't they put the ones theyt find in some deep dirt in a box

and let them multiply so they will have some to study.

[premiumblend]

2. wonder if the fish would like them?

[obliviously]

5. my thoughts exactly! N/T

[gleaner]

6. I was wondering that myself...

The thing is, wouldn't you have to use them on giant fish? Imagine. You could feed one hundred people with one trout.;)

[depakid]

3. Sounds pretty cool

but it's puny compared with the Gippsland earthworm from Victoria:

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

4. Ship 'em to Texas and they can run for president.

[Gabi Hayes]

7. these?

[Cheap_Trick]

8. That's just what I was thinking.....

GRABOIDS!!!