A Conversation for Ask h2g2
Worm sex
Zebedee (still Pool God after all these years) Started conversation Nov 19, 1999
How do worms reproduce? Anyone got a clue?
Worm sex
Cheerful Dragon Posted Nov 19, 1999
Worms are hermaphrodites - they have both male and female reproductive organs in one body. If you look at an earthworm (I assume they're the ones you're on about) you will see a slightly thicker, smooth area part of the way along the body. This is called the saddle and contains at least one set of reproductive organs. I can't remember exacty how it works, whether there's another set somewhere else, but the worms lie side by side and fertilise each other.
Sorry this description isn't more detailed, but I haven't studied worms since second-year biology at secondary school. I'm surprised I can remember this much!
Worm sex
Manic Depressive Posted Nov 19, 1999
I'm assuming since it's very hard to tell one end of a worm from another that the female mut tckle the worm in the middle and see which end reacts and take it from there.
nope actually i don't have a clue and it's gonna be bugging me all day now.
Worm sex
Zebedee (still Pool God after all these years) Posted Nov 19, 1999
Well it's been bugging me since the topic was first mooted over several beers last night - but hang in there!
Worm sex
Captain Kebab Posted Aug 8, 2003
Okay, whilst cruising old Askh2g2 threads I found this one - and now I need to know! It didn't get much interest first time around - any takers?
Worm sex
Sierra Indigo - now Cheesecakethulhu flavoured Posted Aug 9, 2003
Heh. Maybe Cheerful Dragon might have an update!
Worm sex
Cheerful Dragon Posted Aug 9, 2003
OK, you asked for it. The following was taken from this website: http://www.icewatch.ca/english/wormwatch/about/ecology.html What they call the 'clitellum', I called the 'saddle' - the thick smooth bit on the worm's body. The site has a picture so you can see where it is.
You can tell when an earthworm is ready to mate because its’ clitellum will change colour from pinkish to red-orange. The two earthworms line up in a head to tail fashion and exchange spermatozoa (sperm). The sperm is stored in the spermathecae. Both worms do this at the same time. A slime tube then forms around the clitellum, which dries and fills with a fluid called albumin. The earthworm then wiggles out of the tube head first. While the tube passes from the clitellum to the prostomium, it passes over the female pore which deposits ovum (eggs) into the capsule, followed by the spermatheca pore (male pore) which releases the stored spermatozoa. Some earthworms mate on the soil surface and some earthworms mate in the soil. Given the dark soil environment, we think that earthworms produce a pheromone (chemical) that signals other earthworms in the area that it is ready to reproduce.
Fascinating, isn't it?
Worm sex
Captain Kebab Posted Aug 9, 2003
Eew, that *is* fascinating, and appropriately yucky sounding (slime tube! ). It isn't at all what I expected, although I'm not sure what I did expect.
Cheerful Dragon
Worm sex
Xanatic Posted Aug 10, 2003
What about snakes, those have interesting mating habits as well. There are some where they do a regular gangbang. A whole bunch of snakes all curl into each other in one big knot, and somehow the females get fertilized. Probably not knowing which one the father is. And it seems anacondas are capable of virgin births as well.
Worm sex
Captain Kebab Posted Aug 10, 2003
The snakes sound a bit like Blackpool on a Saturday night.
Are anacondas hermaphrodite then? Or what...
Worm sex
Xanatic Posted Aug 10, 2003
No, they have two sexes. But the virgin births they don`t really know wether it happens or not. They used to think the female snakes were able to store sperm in them for a long time, and then impregnate themselves later on. But then one snake gave birth without ever having been near a male.
Worm sex
Sierra Indigo - now Cheesecakethulhu flavoured Posted Aug 10, 2003
Intriguing...But I'm afraid to Google "Snake Virgin Birth" or anything of the like...Gawd knows what I'll find *G*
Worm sex
Mr. Legion Posted Aug 10, 2003
I did Biology for three years, and the only thing I've taken away from it is the mechanics of how earthworms (or, as we smarmy gits say, Lumbricus Terrestrus ) make the beast with two backs. I seem to remember our teacher using the word 'trickle' in his description of the exchange of sperm This is probably what burned it into my mind. Anyway, if the subject of biology ever comes up now I enthusiastically offer to describe the process - you wouldn't *believe* how popular this makes me.
Interestingly, this is the first link to appear in the afore-mentioned Google search:
http://www.rnw.nl/science/html/030224snake.html
Raunchy!
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Worm sex
- 1: Zebedee (still Pool God after all these years) (Nov 19, 1999)
- 2: Cheerful Dragon (Nov 19, 1999)
- 3: Manic Depressive (Nov 19, 1999)
- 4: Zebedee (still Pool God after all these years) (Nov 19, 1999)
- 5: Captain Kebab (Aug 8, 2003)
- 6: Sierra Indigo - now Cheesecakethulhu flavoured (Aug 9, 2003)
- 7: Cheerful Dragon (Aug 9, 2003)
- 8: Captain Kebab (Aug 9, 2003)
- 9: Sierra Indigo - now Cheesecakethulhu flavoured (Aug 9, 2003)
- 10: David Conway (Aug 10, 2003)
- 11: Xanatic (Aug 10, 2003)
- 12: Captain Kebab (Aug 10, 2003)
- 13: Xanatic (Aug 10, 2003)
- 14: Sierra Indigo - now Cheesecakethulhu flavoured (Aug 10, 2003)
- 15: Mr. Legion (Aug 10, 2003)
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