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A fried eggs worm (Archipheretima middletoni) in Aurora, the Philippines

by Chien C. Lee

#fried eggs worm #earthworms #annelids #archipheretima middletoni #archipheretima #Megascolecidae #Opisthopora #Clitellata #Annelida #wildlife: philippines #wildlife: asia

This is a...

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Voting ended onAug 9

By Forest Botial-Jarvis, CC-BY

#fried eggs worm #fried eggs earthworm #earthworm #annelid #worm #id in alt text #sunday poll

Name: Fried Eggs Worm (Archipheretima middletoni)

Debut: Real Life

What the! Whuzzah! That's a! WOW! This is how I felt upon learning about Fried Eggs Worm for the first time, and I hope you feel the same way, because MY GOODNESS! In this world, there exists an earthworm, which is a deep blue, and has spots that look just like sunny-side-up eggs. Sometimes it looks like the yolk was punctured and spilled out! Better hope a Toast Worm is nearby to sop that up!

I could not BELIEVE I had not learned about this creature until just a few months ago, and I could not let it be obscure any longer. This is one of the most incredible creatures, and now you know about it, too!

Perhaps the reason for its obscurity is that it was only "formally" discovered and named rather recently, in 2009. Of course, the people who had been living in its native range in the Philippines had known about it long before that! How could they miss it, really? I will remind you: this worm has Egg Imagery all over its body.

Some local folklore suggested that these silly little wigglies might be the juvenile form of an eel species from a nearby river, and if you're familiar with eel development, something that strange doesn't seem all that out of character for an eel. The truth is, the Fried Eggs Worm is quite out of character for an earthworm! It is more of a leaflitterworm, because instead of burrowing in the soil, it burrows in the leaf litter. It is thought that the funny spots might help it camouflage in there by resembling light pouring through the leaves, kind of like a baby deer's or tapir's spots!

The Fried Eggs Worm does not spend ALL of its time in the leaf litter. Oh, no. It isn't even born in there. It's born in a doggone TREE. Their babies have been found in the leaf axils of the pandanus tree, meaning their parents CLIMB TREES in order to reproduce. Arboreal annelids! These limbless tubes are better at climbing trees than we are, and we're apes! And more ridiculous still, so far only one baby worm has been found per tree. These babies might each get an entire tree all to themselves with no competition. Is that really necessary? I think Fried Eggs Worm may be showing off, but it has every right to do that. I hope it continues!

Fried Eggs Worm should be the new Easter mascot. Nothing against rabbits, but they're one of the most popular animals. They have enough, I think. And they're not Egg at all! They don't lay eggs, and they don't have any visual egg motif. Fried Eggs Worm, however, lays eggs, and is covered in egg iconography! Second only to Fried Egg Jellyfish.

In conclusion, this eggcellent creature worms my heart, and I hope you feel the same way, especially if you did not know of them before! It feels representative of the fact that we will never know every creature of this world, and there will always be more to learn!