What kind of animal is doing this?

[Acme]

Reading.

Earthworm

...

Special habitats

 

While, as the name earthworm suggests, the main habitat of earthworms is in soil, the situation is more complicated than that. The brandling worm Eisenia fetida lives in decaying plant matter and manure. Arctiostrotus vancouverensis from Vancouver Island and the Olympic Peninsula is generally found in decaying conifer logs. Aporrectodea limicola, Sparganophilus spp., and several others are found in mud in streams. Some species are arboreal, some aquatic and some euryhaline (salt-water tolerant) and littoral (living on the sea-shore, e.g. Pontodrilus litoralis). Even in the soil species, special habitats, such as soils derived from serpentine, have an earthworm fauna of their own.

Ecology

 

Earthworms are classified into three main ecophysiological categories: (1) leaf litter- or compost-dwelling worms that are non burrowing, live at soil-litter interface, and eat decomposing OM (called Epigeic) e.g. Eisenia fetida; (2) topsoil- or subsoil-dwelling worms that feed (on soil), burrow and cast within soil, creating horizontal burrows in upper 10–30 cm of soil (called Endogeics); and (3) worms that construct permanent deep vertical burrows which they use to visit the surface to obtain plant material for food, such as leaves (called Anecic (meaning "reaching up")), e.g. Lumbricus terrestris.[26]

...

All earthworms are not created equal and as before, off the cuff generalizations and opinions are worthless in regards to scientific merit.

Edited January 6, 2015 by Acme

[Robittybob1]

Reading.

Earthworm

 

All earthworms are not created equal and as before, off the cuff generalizations and opinions are worthless in regards to scientific merit.

That might be true but can you be certain that was the case for the worms on my farm in NZ? That is a big step to take.

[Acme]

Go out and ID them for yourself.

[Robittybob1]

Go out and ID them for yourself.

I wonder how I'd go about that? Can they be just visually checked?

[michel123456]

Who is going to check that worms do not drown?

[Acme]

I wonder how I'd go about that? Can they be just visually checked?

Have you bothered to look anything up?

Who is going to check that worms do not drown?

How about you?

[Robittybob1]

Have you bothered to look anything up?

Yes I tried to find the name of those worms from Southland (NZ) and found the whole exercise frustrating.

Edited January 6, 2015 by Robittybob1

[Acme]

.

Honestly, the level of ineptitude displayed in basic scientific investigation is disheartening.

 

Anyway, I have started reviewing my recording and I'm many hours from posting any video. Nevertheless, I can start giving a timeline and some observations.

 

4:38pm recording started; still light

~5:20 nightfall

5:41 earthworm emerges ~1/4" and then holds still

5:43 worm seizes soil clump & retreats with small soil plug places next to burrow

5:44 worm emerges ~1/2" and begins rotating (first clockwise and then counter-clockwise) and touches soil with anterior tip as it goes round

5:46 worm retreats

Yes I tried to find the name of those worms from Southland (NZ) and found the whole exercise frustrating.

Science is exacting and patience is requisite.

.

Went out & checked burrow and found it nicely plugged with soil and the plant stem that I left nearby. Photo below. Currently 43ºF & foggy. Will just have to wait & see if I caught the plugging operation on video or not.

[michel123456]

Have you bothered to look anything up?

How about you?

You will have to wait. I am not aware for worms in the cement-like red earth of my little yard. And the earth is frozen tonight.

[Acme]

You will have to wait. I am not aware for worms in the cement-like red earth of my little yard. And the earth is frozen tonight.

Fair enough for your region and weather. Nevertheless, your post implied that you questioned the truth of worms not drowning. Is that the case?

 

While I'm here, some more events from my recording.

 

5:59 - 6:18 the worm emerged and retreated several more times a short distance and did its round about sensing routine

6:18 a small millipede/centipede crawls in from the right, explores a bit and exits right.

6:22 a small 'worm' (can't tell exactly if earthworm or not) enters top frame & moves toward large earthworm's burrow and disappears underground nearby.

[Acme]

Alrighty. If it ain't one thing it's another, but...

 

1) I didn't measure the plant stem last night and only guessed it was 10" (25cm) long. I just measured the protruding part at 12 cm however and it is 2.5mm thick where it enters the burrow in the pic above. The featured worm is 2 to 3 times as wide. I have no suitable scale to weigh any of this small stuff, but it's on my wish list.

 

2) Sensei, if you're still reading, that stop-action cord is not available for the camera model I got. Se la vie.

 

3) I'm somewhat inept at video editing and only last week downloaded MS MovieMaker so expect delays and errors.

 

4) Given the 3 min. limit on videos at Flickr I had to make a Youtube channel. So many hoops!! Good thing I'm agile. I will see how well that went and repost that first video below.

 

5)6:54 the small 'worm' re-emerged center stage and exited screen right. I still can't tell if its a centipede or earthworm but I'm inclined to go with the former.

7:05 ... the featured earthworm re-emerged and started moving stuff around. This includes the large plant stem that ended up in the burrow, as well as a Doug Fir needle and a deciduous leaf. I'm currently at 7:45 and it's still moving those 3 bits around. Just to be clear the camera is level looking forward at the burrow in a vertical soil face. Given the short end of the stick that the worm has to lever with and that he/she lifts the long end into the air, this is worth mentioning again with regards the worm's strength.

 

6) I located an earthworm identification guide: >>Worm ID

 

7)Arc, do you have anything new to report?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=UUXjjXsh0mRoqBopZX5t2BCg&v=NOzkuze1iIQ&feature=player_detailpage

Here we go thens. I clipped out the last 50 or so minutes before the battery died and accelerated it all 16x to give a 2:49 video. Toward the end a medium size earthworm enters scene right but the featured worm doesn't seem to notice. Something does cause the featured worm to make a hasty retreat near the end and perhaps the camera beeped or made some signal noise as it neared exhaustion. I would have put that retreat in at normal speed but I don't know how to do that yet. Even at regular speed it withdrew in a fraction of a second, far faster than I expected of an earthworm.

 

Unfortunately I didn't get to capture the insertion into the burrow of the stick, and the leaf 'he' tried to drag into the burrow ultimately ended up at the bottom of the 'pit'. Interestingly, when the worm seized the leaf and tried stuffing it in the burrow he seemed to grab a vein on the back and not the petiole or any part of the leaf's margin as Darwin described.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=UUXjjXsh0mRoqBopZX5t2BCg&v=fujTc9qhFPo&feature=player_detailpage

Edited January 7, 2015 by Acme

[michel123456]

C' est la vie.

Fair enough for your region and weather. Nevertheless, your post implied that you questioned the truth of worms not drowning. Is that the case?

That is the case.

The Internet says otherwise, it says that the earthworms drown after much time. But I see nowhere original research. We are still at the epoch of Scholasticism.

[Acme]

 

...2) Sensei, if you're still reading, that stop-action cord is not available for the camera model I got. Se la vie.

C' est la vie.

 

Meh.

 

 

 

Nevertheless, your post implied that you questioned the truth of worms not drowning. Is that the case?

That is the case.

The Internet says otherwise, it says that the earthworms drown after much time. But I see nowhere original research. We are still at the epoch of Scholasticism.

 

We are still in the epoch of internet trolls. I don't give a rat's ass for the doubts you and Bobbity have seen fit to post in derailment of this thread.

 

So Arc, worms would do what you have observed in your yard. Stick a fork in me.

[StringJunky]

Worms rise and move around the surface to improve the oxygen situation; that's why you see them on top of wet lawns on rainy days.

[Robittybob1]

Meh.

 

 

We are still in the epoch of internet trolls. I don't give a rat's ass for the doubts you and Bobbity have seen fit to post in derailment of this thread.

 

So Arc, worms would do what you have observed in your yard. Stick a fork in me.

Just keep my name out of your bickering for I'm only posting relevant information. I'm not stopping you doing anything. Keep going.

[Sensei]

I noticed pretty nice video digital camera with interval recording 1s-60s:

 

 

http://store.sony.com/action-cam-with-live-view-remote-bundle-zid27-HDRAS200VR/W/cat-27-catid-All-Action-Cam

 

This LCD preview screen on wristwatch-like is also very cool thing. Wondering at what max distance it's working.

 

According to website

"Control up to 5 Action Cam via phone1 or LiveView™ Remote"

So you can have one wristwatch, and couple lab experiments going and recorded in one room, and switch between them and monitor their states from distance from second room..

Edited March 27, 2015 by Sensei

[CasualKilla]

Acme, the majority of your pictures are broken links . That is a huge worm, no wonder the majority of your grass is dead.