So you’re not interested in native New Zealand earthworms?

Wait until you read about their sex life.

Each individual worm has both female and male sex organs, yet they still mate to procreate. Their lovemaking is a true feat of multitasking

Spotting an outsized earthworm slithering over my patio ignited my instant interest in this critter, its origins and its life. To my surprise, I forgot about my breakfast. I felt a biological hunger instead. Darwin, here I come. At the time of this exclamation, I did not know Charles Darwin actually wrote an entire book about earthworms and spent half his life studying them.

Who would have thought!

Extremely long book titles must have been okay back then or perhaps Darwin had earned the right to write whichever way he pleased. “Formation of vegetable mould, through the action of worms, with observations on their habits” was published in 1881.

In the first chapter, Darwin wrote he simply became interested in earthworms wishing “to learn how far they acted consciously, and how much mental power they displayed.” He was “the more desirous to learn” since not much was known about these creatures back then. Or in Darwin’s lingo: “(…) as far as I…