psst… spring is close. if you have a camera or a phone and access to worms, go get photos of the worms and feed them to me and I can tell you what they are
Comments
Log in with your Bluesky account to leave a comment
depends on the worms, since some live deep in soil and others on the surface under leaf litter, but it’s easy to just wait for rain and see who gets driven out or starts wandering then.
we currently have about 45+cm of snow and strong winds so yeah I hope I'm not seeing worms any time soon because that means I probably should see a doctor. X>
Can you find worms without digging around? I'm always going on bug safaris with my camera but I try not to disturb the environment too much if I can help it
wait for rain I guess! or concentrate on stuff under potted plants, if you have any outside. I also prefer to not really mess up stuff and try to be consistent with what/how many cover objects I move
usually 1. dorsal, 2. ventral, 3. closeup of underside of clitellum
(optional for genus but extremely helpful for species IDs after this) 4. side 5. closeup of first segment 6. closeup of setae (usually only macro lens users can get good setal line photos)
it is surprisingly easy to find state records or otherwise interesting observations! and if nothing else, can help to give the iNat CV a pointer in the right direction
Quick question for uh... the people that don't know
How do you tell which side is the dorsal surface versus the ventral surface? I did a quick online search and even a lot of links were unhelpful with things like "the dorsal is the top side of the earthworm"
underside almost always paler, and if the worm is moving, it’ll usually be crawling on its “belly” and will right itself if flipped over. in lumbricids with a saddle type clitellum, the top of the clitellum will be puffy and smooth, while the underside will be flush with the other segments
good earthworm photos especially needed from Florida, Texas, California, D.C., plus anywhere in the world tropical. Australia, New Zealand, and Southern Europe have too many endemic species that I will be useless for, but I’ll like the weird bugs nonetheless
I have an irrational fear of sending you a worm photo, except it is (unbeknownst to me) the most embarrassing and unrespectable worm out there and all of Wormsky laughs at me
every. worm. in. Florida. is. interesting. no lie, there are cool native species in the top half, and cool invasive species everywhere and especially south Florida
Comments
1. dorsal, 2. ventral, 3. closeup of underside of clitellum
(optional for genus but extremely helpful for species IDs after this) 4. side 5. closeup of first segment 6. closeup of setae
usually 1. dorsal, 2. ventral, 3. closeup of underside of clitellum
(optional for genus but extremely helpful for species IDs after this) 4. side 5. closeup of first segment 6. closeup of setae (usually only macro lens users can get good setal line photos)
How do you tell which side is the dorsal surface versus the ventral surface? I did a quick online search and even a lot of links were unhelpful with things like "the dorsal is the top side of the earthworm"
(don’t worry, there’s usually at least one weird unexpected worm no matter where you live)