Total Trivia

[MSH2]

Bees and ants remind me of the Cyborgs, the individual is irrelevant, it's the colony that matters.

Its true, for the most part, And very similar colonies in many ways. The workers are important only in how they can serve and protect the colony. They're expendable and usually live very short lives. Bees I think dont live longer than a couple of months

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

Its true, for the most part, And very similar colonies in many ways. The workers are important only in how they can serve and protect the colony. They're expendable and usually live very short lives. Bees I think dont live longer than a couple of months

A social insect colony operates without any central control; no one is in charge, and no colony member directs the behavior of another. A worker cannot assess the needs of another.

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

With their combined weight greater than the combined weight of all humans, ants are the most numerous type of animal.

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

Most of the organs of an earthworm are in the "top half". If you look at a worm, there is a band going around it about 1/3 of the way down from one end. That end is the "top" of the worm. When a worm is cut in half it can regenerate a new tail, but the other half can't regenerate a new head. So, no, you don't get two new worms.

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

One study showed that each year on an acre (0.4 hectare) of average cultivated land, 16,000 pounds (7200 kg) of soil pass through earthworm guts and are deposited atop the soil -- 30,000 pounds (13,500 kg) in really wormy soil! Charles Darwin himself calculated that if all the worm excreta resulting from ten years of worm work on one acre of soil were spread over that acre, it would be two inches thick (5.08 cm).

This is something we should appreciate because earthworm droppings -- called castings when deposited atop the ground -- are rich in nitrogen, calcium, magnesium, and phosphorus, and these are all important nutrients for healthy, prospering ecosystems. In your own backyard you might be able to confirm that grass around earthworm burrows grows taller and greener than grass just inches away.

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

Earthworms have simple brains which specialize in directing body movement in response to light, and not much else. To show how simple the brain is, if an earthworm's brain is removed, changes in its general behavior are hardly noticeable.

I know some people just like that!

 

[mickyp123]

Earthworms have simple brains which specialize in directing body movement in response to light, and not much else. To show how simple the brain is, if an earthworm's brain is removed, changes in its general behavior are hardly noticeable.

I know some people just like that!

Should you pick a worm that does not have a band at one end, to find the head end simply drop it into a bowl of flour and wait for it to fart

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

Should you pick a worm that does not have a band at one end, to find the head end simply drop it into a bowl of flour and wait for it to fart

Remember to remove the worm before baking the bread

Earthworms possess five hearts and have no lungs.

Each earthworm carries both male and female reproductive parts --they are, like snails and slugs, hermaphroditic

HOW DO EARTHWORMS REPRODUCE?

This matter is as complex as it is interesting, so put your mind in low gear and hold on...

First of all, not every earthworm segment bears sex organs. Counting from the front, the worm's male sex cells lie in segments 10 and 11. From here the sperm pass through sperm ducts to two male genital openings on the bottom of segment 15. On segments 9 and 10 there are two minuscule sacs called sperm receptacles, or pores, where, during earthworm sex, sperm are deposited. However, this is not where eggs are produced. The egg-producing ovaries reside in segment 13, from which eggs are released through the female pores into egg sacs in segment 14. Finally, there's a rubbery, arm-band-like thing covering the worm's body from segments 31 or 32 to 37, and this is called the clitellum.

Now, when two earthworms mate, they line up next to one another with their "heads" pointing in opposite directions. The clitellum of one worm lies opposite segments 9-11 of the other, which, you'll remember, contain the male parts. The worms now secrete tremendous amounts of mucus, until each is enclosed in a slime tube extending from segment 9 to the rear end of the clitellum at segment 37. Now sperm are ejaculated from segment 15 and carried backward in tubes formed by grooves in the body touching the slime tube and the sperm pass to the sperm receptacles on segments 9 and 10 of the other worm.

Then the earthworms go their different ways. Sex is done. However, that is not to say that eggs have been fertilized, because they haven't. It's just that now, in each worm's sperm receptacles, there are sperm from the other worm.

The next step in producing baby earthworms comes when the earthworm is by itself. Its clitellum secretes a second mucous ring that slides forward over the worm's body. When the ring passes the openings in segment 14, several ripe eggs leave the body and stick to the ring. The ring keeps moving forward until it passes the sperm receptacles in segments 9 and 10, and here sperm come into contact with eggs. Finally, within the mucous ring, the eggs are fertilized.

Now the ring containing the fertilized eggs slips off the worm's "head," seals at both ends, and becomes a sort of cocoon, which is left lying in the soil. Ultimately the eggs hatch and tiny worms escape from the mucous ring, into the soil.

The end.

 

[mickyp123]

The End

I think it might be, there is a new worm on the block, i think it's from norway, its bigger than ours, flat, and it eats our worms

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

-: Americans consume 10 times as many soft drinks as the Japanese
-: The average person in the United Kingdom drinks as much tea as 23 Italians.
-: Norwegians drink 10.7 kilograms of coffee per person each year, and also lead the globe in anxiety disorders. Time to switch to herbal tea?
-: Canadians drink more fruit juice than the citizens of any other nation - more than one litre for each person, every week.
-: The average rate of pork consumption among the Danes is over twice as high as that of Americans.
-: In 1960, alcohol consumption in Italy was 16.6 litres consumed per person. In 2003? 8 litres were consumed per person.
-: Venezuela has three times as many Subway resturants as France.

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

The chameleon, a small lizard generally measuring 6 or 7 inches, has a tongue several inches longer than its body. With a thrust of this remarkable appendage, it can catch insects some 10 inches away.

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

There are 4,360,000 cubic yards of concrete in the Hoover Dam. This much concrete would build a monument 100 feet square and 2-1/2 miles high; would rise higher than the Empire State Building (which is 1,250 feet) if placed on an ordinary city block; or would pave a standard highway, 16 feet wide, from San Francisco to New York City.

 

[Annicka]

The Vanishing Island. In 1739 the French Antarctic explorer Jean Bouvet discovered a glacier-decked island 1,500 mi. from the Cape of Good Hope and named it after himself. Tow subsequent British expeditions, however, failed to locate any such place, which, accordingly, was not marked in the official Admiralty charts. But in 1808 and 1822, British sealing vessels found Bouvet Island exactly where the Frenchman had placed it, and even landed on its bleak shore. The island was promptly marked on the maps. Then, in 1845, Bouvet disappeared once more. Two naval survey expeditions sighted no trace of the 5-sq.-mi. mystery spot. The British Admiralty again expunged it from its charts. Ten years later three ships separately confirmed its existence again, but the Admiralty was now so confused that it produced some maps showing Bouvet and others without it. In 1898 official confirmation, backed by photographs, was supplied by the German steamer Valdivia. Both the Admiralty and the U.S. Navy now put Bouvet back on their charts. It is still there--despite the fact that the Norwegian survey craft Stavanger reported its disappearance once more in 1921.

 

[desideratum]

The early bird catches the worm lol And if you have a craving for insects for breakfast; Beetles taste like apples, wasps like pine nuts and white worms like fried pork rinds!

 

[smotherman]

Of the 206 bones in the human body, 52 are in the feet.

 

[smotherman]

On average, about 500 meteorites strike the surface of the Earth each year. The calculated risk of being struck by a meteorite in the United States is once every 9,300 years.

 

[smotherman]

People fear spiders more than they do dying. However, statistically you are more likely to be killed by a champagne cork than by the bite of a poisonous spider.

 

[smotherman]

Orange juice helps the body absorb iron easily when consumed with a meal.

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

When playing golf, scraping the golf club along the ground before hitting the ball is called sclaffing.

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

Phone calls in the U.S. plummeted as much as 58 percent during the reading of the O.J. Simpson trial verdict in 1995. According to polls, workers across the nation put their jobs on hold for up to 30 minutes. In contrast, phone call volume barely budged when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

Snow avalanches occur about a million times a year.

 

[smotherman]

The top three names for female babies born in China last year were Huan Yue, Jia Li and -- unlikely as it seems Buffy

 

[smotherman]

A Tokyo inventor has developed a laptop computer whose battery is recharged by energy generated from the movement of the user's mouse, yet Sony lawyers have successfully blocked every attempt to produce a product using the technology.

 

[smotherman]

Contrary to their popular image as spinsters, the average librarian has 5.9 random sex partners per year.

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

The number 4 is the only number, in the English language, that has the same number of letters in its name as its meaning.