Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1955-04-13
Weird, FrightfuI Worms
Live in Jungle Depths
Some Bright oIored.
Others Are SickIy Hued

Some brI9ht-Colored
Others Are SickIy Hued
BY THOMAS r. HENRY
HENRY PTTTIER NATIONAL PARK.
Venezuela.-Here is the realm Of fam
tastic worms.
In the -shrouded jungle there
are earthworms the size of small SER
penis which often are found in decayed
hollows of high trees. The present
specimens probably were born among
the clouds but their ancestors must
have scaled the trees.
The lives of these tree-dwelling
earthwormS are essentially the same
as those of earthworms everywhere.
Small patches Of earth in which they
burrow are formed in the treetops.
Most spectacular of the cloud forest
worms are the giant tubellaria, or land
planarians. One giant is from to IL
inches long. They live on leaves and
damp moss, usually on the forest floor.
They are related closely to the ribbon
worms which have been described as
"26-inch ribbons Of sheer brilliance"
One species Is orange colored, shading
at the edges into lemon-yellow with q
jet-black band UP the center. The
giant worms are like fiat bands of
elastic and are capable of stretching
to nearly twice their normal length
when alarmed.
Like Cold Molasses
r,lav epnaroytl,, ora an,o.,,x ~. ,...4
organized of all animals and break up
easily into apparent blobs of slime.
They are reasonably safe from other
jungle animals because their flesh" is
quite inedible. AS described by the
naturalist, William Beebe, who spent
many months studying the animal life
of the cloud forest:
To pry. one loose and put 1t in a
bottle is "like pouring thick, cold mo-
lasses mixed with thick glue. When
frightened or annoyed they twist into
knots and break into many parts"
Each of these parts is capable of be-
coming a new animal. The worms
move over the moss at speed of about
6 feet an hour. They are seldom seen
and very little is known about their
ways of life.
A notable denizen of the cloud forest
is brilliant scarlet milliped, the poly
gonoceraS. 1t is a ground dWeller,
most often encountered among low
bushes. The scarlet coat is crossed by
varied numbers of black bands. Like all
other millipeds, it is supposed to be
entirely harmless and the brilliant
cn1OrinU ic 90 fn
dangerous.
This cloud forest, where all life is
rigidly protected, is one of the last
refugees on earth for one of the most
paradoxical Of all animals-the half
-year-old peripatus. It is half a
worm and half an insect and a quite
obvious link in evolution between these
two major orders of animal life.
To the casual observer it is reddish
brown, slow-crawling worm divided. as
are many worms, into segments. It has
nothing which can be distinguished as
head. but biologists say that when it
is dissected fairly advanced brain, for
the worm family, can be found.
But on each of its segmentS is a pair
OF extremely minute legs, to which no
worm has any right. Various other de-
tails OF its anatomy demonstrate its
close ancestral relationship to the in
SectS. 1t is one of the first animals to
have left its fossil imprints in rocks.
Eagerly Sought
Fortunately. even here, it is very
difficult to find, and this may account
for it's preservation before the present
strict laws were enforced. It is sought
eagerly everywhere by collectors, but
few ever have seen a living specimen.
Here it lives around tree bottoms and in
hollows high in trees. It is a worm
hunter, living on various small insects.
These it secures by shooting very slen-
der threads of sticky silk from its
mouth, usually with deadly aim. The
thread is drawn in when the game has
been bagged. The probability is that
1t hunts more or less at random. When
one is placed on the back of the hand
it "splts" continually. but the fluid is
entirely harmless. It might easily en-
gulf small insect.
One can't, of course, see everything
in few days spent in the shrouded
JuAASAC dAu uiuot Take Lie WOrQ OF
others for some of the natural wonders.
DR.. Walter Arp, the present director,
describes-Dr. Beebe also has written
of them--weeds with what appear to
be blotches of purple blossoms. When
these are plucked, however, they turn
out to be assemblies of tiny beetles,
each about fourth inch long, piled on
top of each other in several layers.
They are of an inedible species and
hence are safe from birds and other
insects
DR.. Beebe also describes a curious
wormlike phenomenon which DR.. Arp
has failed to find-a parade along jun
gle paths of groups of hundreds of
maggots, the larvae of some fly. The
moving mass liver-colored, looks like
a single animal with a head and tail.
The shape of the mass, however,
changes frequently from wormlike to
oval.
1t consists of from three to five layers
OF the maggots. All are blind but there
are definite leaders of the procession
who project in front like head. The
mass moves as an apparently organized
whole about eight feet an hour.
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