What’s behind Britain’s earthworm cataclysm?
Their numbers may have declined by a third
Charles Darwin liked an earthworm. What earthworms felt about Charles Darwin is less clear. For 40 years he studied them, thought about them and experimented on them. He exhaled on them to see if they disliked his breath (they didn’t) and held a poker to them to see if they minded the heat (they generally did). He wafted perfume and then paraffin in front of them, and he played them a whistle, a bassoon and the piano. They seemed nonplussed. He fed them mint (which they didn’t care for), cabbage (which they did) and other worms, halved (catholic in their tastes, they enjoyed their diet of worms).
Explore more
This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “Wormageddon”
Britain May 25th 2024
- Could the Labour Party blow its big opportunity?
- What’s behind Britain’s earthworm cataclysm?
- “A day of shame” for the British state
- The sorry story of children in care in England
- When is a non-alcoholic drink alcohol-free?
- Rishi Sunak’s snap election is odd and illogical—much like him
- The world’s first museum of homelessness
From the May 25th 2024 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Explore the editionMore from Britain
Has the Royal Navy become too timid?
A new paper examines how its culture has changed
A plan to reorganise local government in England runs into opposition
Turkeys vote against Christmas
David Lammy’s plan to shake up Britain’s Foreign Office
Diplomats will be tasked with growing the economy and cutting migration
Britain’s government has spooked markets and riled businesses
Tax rises were inevitable. Such a shaky start was not
Labour’s credibility trap
Who can believe Rachel Reeves?