This old wives' tale about earthworms' ability to regenerate is quite
overblown. Only the head end can survive and then can only partly
regenerate the missing segments. Different species regenerate to different
degrees, but the anterior end has the brain, hearts (6 of them),
reproductive organs and gizzard.
E. fetida (correct spelling apparently) makes excellent compost worms
except for their smell and a tendency to swarm out of the container. Fish
tend to avoid them so they don't make good bait.
Judy Fournier
<110275.1004 at compuserve.com>
-- ANNELIDA
Discuss = annelida at net.bio.net = talk to all members
Server = biosci-server at net.bio.net = un/subscribes
Archives = http://www.bio.net:80/hypermail/ANNELIDA/
Resources = http://biodiversity.uno.edu/~worms/annelid.html
--
