The message
from Kay Easton contains these words:

I understood amynthas to mean that in some species the ova wouldn't have
to be fertilised - not totally unreasonable? Don't greenfly do something
similar?

I don't think so. The clitellum passes down the worm - or to be more
exact, the worm squeezes through the clitellum and would collect sperm
from the vesicula seminalis before encapsulating the egg(s), though I
don't know whether it has been observed.

--
Rusty
Open the creaking gate to make a horrid.squeak, then lower the foobar.
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

In article , Jaques
d'Alltrades writes
The message
from Kay Easton contains these words:

I understood amynthas to mean that in some species the ova wouldn't have
to be fertilised - not totally unreasonable? Don't greenfly do something
similar?

I don't think so. The clitellum passes down the worm - or to be more
exact, the worm squeezes through the clitellum and would collect sperm
from the vesicula seminalis before encapsulating the egg(s), though I
don't know whether it has been observed.

I've since spoken to him. He's not talking here about reproduction after
sexual congress, he's talking (as I understood from his post - "Of
course, there are some worms that don't bother with meeting
up with another worm and just produce cocoons from which identical
copies of themselves emerge. ") about certain species of earthworm who,
as well as indulging in sex, can also reproduce without sex. Since they
" don't bother with meeting
up with another worm and just produce cocoons from which identical
copies of themselves emerge" then the whole 'squeezes through the
clitellum" bit isn't relevant.

He tells me there are some species where specimens have been kept in
isolation since birth, and have still managed to produce offspring.
--
Kay Easton

Edward's earthworm page:
http://www.scarboro.demon.co.uk/edward/index.htm

The message
from Amynthas contains these words:

Well 20 years of experience as a research scientist working on
earthworms tells me that they are not earthworm cocoons.

YATMeconAICM£5

--
Rusty
Open the creaking gate to make a horrid.squeak, then lower the foobar.
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

The message
from Amynthas contains these words:

(Ref. another plaice: Where have you got to these days?)

Lots of places, mainly up in the Dales (and underneath them).
But very little time to read newsgroups.

Stalking them TAAAW! BTW, what's the other large earthworm genus wot
isn't Lumbricus?

Study of earthworms unforgets me of when we had to make slides of the
contents of the earthworm's vesicula seminalis, and my slide showed
every stage of monocystis. (Sp?)It was so thick with them that it almost
resembled a bit of Paisley Pattern cloff.

(IMO) The prettiest girl in the class, who was sitting at the bench on
the other side of the way down the middle, was complaining that her
slide was devoid of the parasites, so I lent her my slide.

Our teechur and I harboured a mutual antipathy, and this was well-known
in the class. She stopped at Lavinia's microscope, peered in, moved the
slide about and went into eulogies about it.

Giving credit where it was due, Lavinia told her whose it was. "Oh!" Was
all Miss W said, as she stalked off. Class laughed about it for days.

--
Rusty
Open the creaking gate to make a horrid.squeak, then lower the foobar.
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/