Frank Ashwood

Did someone bury a tiny lemon?

Nope, this is an earthworm cocoon!

After mating, both earthworms will produce a cocoon like this (they're hermaphrodites), containing a fertilised egg. Inside, a baby earthworm will grow, before hatching out the end like a tiny pink noodle. Inside the cocoons, wormlings are protected from drought, flooding and low oxygen conditions, and will hatch when conditions are good again!

#Soil #SoilEcology #SoilBiodiversity #Earthworm #Macrophotography #Nature #NaturePhotography #Entomology

Jul 9, 2025 at 9:11amWeb
Show threadJon SullivanJul 9, 2025
@frankashwood Super cool. It’s like there’s another world at our feet.
Show threadD.DremJul 9, 2025

@joncounts @frankashwood there is. You can find more than 1k beings discoverable by naked eye in a handful of soil¹. And more than a billion adding bacteria, fungi and other microscopic beings.

¹depends on soil ofc. This is about German forest soil.

Just got aware that numbers might have changed cause I just remembered from a German science show for kids. So information is around 30 years old.
I'm feeling old now😂

Show threadmags amondJul 9, 2025
@frankashwood One of the delights of teaching about the earthworm in biology class was finding out how much time Darwin spent investigation and writing about their importance as a species.
Show threadFrank AshwoodJul 9, 2025
@magsamond yep! His final book was all about his work on them, published the year he died!
Show threadmags amondJul 9, 2025
@frankashwood indeed; I loved that the person who gave us evolution and tree of life thinking also gave us the science of composting. Yea!
Show threadmags amondJul 9, 2025
@frankashwood I taught in the same school for decades; the earthworm was a mandatory detailed study. Slowly we could see the population decline in our school grounds (rural Ireland) from flourishing to almost gone. I regret not keeping a log of the population decline.
Show thread*FERAL STRUMPET has moved*Jul 10, 2025
@frankashwood Wow, I see these in my garden all the time and I didn't know what they were. Thanks & congratulations on your upcoming book!