A giant earthworm named Dave has wriggled into the record books as the largest ever found in the UK - measuring a whopping 40cm (15.7in)!
Experts at the Natural History Museum said they were "bowled over" by the size of the worm.
It was found in a vegetable plot in Widnes.
The worm was found by Paul Rees and given the name 'Dave' by his stepson George.
P.S. Oh....just found out they've killed him in order to preserve him.
What would you call yours...and why?
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You've upset me now. Why can't they leave things alone. My partner, an entomologist, finds something really rare then kills it, so they will be even rarer. I can't see the logic.
- Primrose
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What a sad end for a noble creature!
As to what we call ours, we have a jumbo spider called Jimmy who seems to live in our bath and regularly disappears down our plughole . if he's in the bath when we want to use it he has to be carefully lifted out and tucked away in a corner of the bathroom where he won't get trodden on until he can make his way back home safely again.
Alas I don't have any worms that size but if I did they would be nurtured and safely tucked away under a clod of earth again before some thieving magpie could swoop down and gobble him up. i call it " him" but arn't worms ambisextrous???
As to what we call ours, we have a jumbo spider called Jimmy who seems to live in our bath and regularly disappears down our plughole . if he's in the bath when we want to use it he has to be carefully lifted out and tucked away in a corner of the bathroom where he won't get trodden on until he can make his way back home safely again.
Alas I don't have any worms that size but if I did they would be nurtured and safely tucked away under a clod of earth again before some thieving magpie could swoop down and gobble him up. i call it " him" but arn't worms ambisextrous???
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Oh Diane, that's not the best news when he/she had a name. Surely they could have replicated his habitat & left him to live out his years then preserved him?
I had a spider in my bedroom as a kid I called Harold the Huntsman. (I think he was a Huntsman, but he could have been anything). He moved from corner to corner of the ceiling but I would never have touched him as was way too big & hairy. In fact the first thing I did when I woke up was check what corner he was in - if he ever wasn't in a corner I was out of there, but he always turned up later.
Westi
I had a spider in my bedroom as a kid I called Harold the Huntsman. (I think he was a Huntsman, but he could have been anything). He moved from corner to corner of the ceiling but I would never have touched him as was way too big & hairy. In fact the first thing I did when I woke up was check what corner he was in - if he ever wasn't in a corner I was out of there, but he always turned up later.
Westi
Westi
- Diane
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Yes, I was really sad when I found out they'd killed him. Suppose he was the last of his line? You'd think they would have created a habitat for him and let him live out his life. He might have grown even bigger. What is the world coming to when even a giant worm isn't safe.
'Preserve wildlife - pickle a rat'