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Posted: **Wed Oct 11, 2006 5:51 pm**

Oligochaetology

"Oligochaete! Thou taxonomic pain!
My mouth and mind and memory affirm,
Twould be much less a stress upon the brain
To designate you merely as a worm..........
The object of my study is to try
To help both man and worm see eye to eye."
- D. N. Howell (1976)

Oligochaetology is the study of worms - specifically, the Class Oligochaeta within the Phylum Annelida. Other classes in the Phylum Annelida, the true segmented worms, include the Acanthobdellae (bristle worms), Aphononeura (suction-feeding worms), Branchiobdellae (crayfish worms), Hirudinea (leeches), and Polychaeta (sand worms, tube worms, and clam worms). Over 15,000 species of worms have been described worldwide; we now recognize 2,450 species in North America north of Mexico.

I ran across this word in an AP news story:

Always on the cutting edge of all things environmental, California is encouraging public and private-sector employees to bring worms to work so that the creatures can chew up apple cores, sandwich scraps and other lunch leftovers and produce compost.

The employees are then invited to take the stuff home and use the all-natural fertilizer in their gardens and on their houseplants.

The state's Integrated Waste Management Board is so serious about this that it has posted on its Web site a list of top 10 ways to recycle on the job, and No. 2 is: "Keep worms in your office."

Posted: **Wed Oct 11, 2006 11:55 pm**

Shakespeare noted in Henry VI that "The smallest worm will turn being trodden on"; interesting to juxtapose with office politics.

Posted: **Thu Oct 12, 2006 12:21 am**

Always on the cutting edge of all things environmental, California is encouraging public and private-sector employees to bring worms to work so that the creatures can chew up apple cores, sandwich scraps and other lunch leftovers and produce compost.

I think that's probably the goofiest darned thing I've heard in a while. Thanks for the chuckle, Larry.

-- PW

Posted: **Thu Oct 12, 2006 10:42 am**

cutting edge, huh? Is that the euphemism for crazy these days?
That said I have a composter that puts out pure gold for my yard and gardens. I add worms to it but the best stuff is the ground up kitchen waste that goes in. My plants just sit up and yell WOW when I put this magic dirt on their roots. I know of at least one building in Washington State that has a worm box, it's a box filled with shredded paper and worms, I wonder who gets to take That home?
mark the-worm-turns Bailey

Posted: **Thu Oct 12, 2006 3:45 pm**

I guess I should have done a little more research before titling this topic. "Worm" always reminds me of a classic horror film that I saw back in my college days. I keep thinking the film was called "Revnege of the Worm," but its real US title is The Conqueror Worm (UK Title Witchfinder General), taken from an Edgar Allan Poe poem of the same name, which bears no relation whatsoever to the title or subject matter of the film. But it's a good title for a horror film just the same.

Vincent Price stars as Matthew Hopkins. Back in high school we had a French teacher, Fr. Eric, who was a dead ringer (horror pun intended) for Vincent Price.

Posted: **Thu Oct 12, 2006 3:47 pm**

. . . I know of at least one building in Washington State that has a worm box, it's a box filled with shredded paper and worms, I wonder who gets to take That home?
mark the-worm-turns Bailey

I guess one would have to be REALLY bent on espionage to attempt to put THOSE shredded documents back together!

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Revenge of the Worm

Revenge of the Worm