Chapter 34 earthworm

-- One of the sequels It suddenly occurred to me that the topic of grass, trees, insects and fish is very interesting, and it is a pity to abandon it. I want to continue writing. At this time, the first thing that comes to my mind is earthworms, or as the saying goes, song worms.When I was a child, every autumn, in the empty courtyard, I often heard a monotonous chirping sound, which seemed to be weaving, but more low and gentle, with a sense of loneliness and sadness. Quite right.Case Cui Bao ancient and modern note cloud: "Earthworms are named Wenshan and Qushan, and they are good at singing in the ground. Jiangdongwei is a singer, or Mingzhu." It can be seen that the theory of earthworm singing has existed in ancient times, although it is not the case in fact. There are some in the countryside. The original words of the common proverb can't be fully remembered, to the effect that the mole cricket has been called for a lifetime, but it has gained fame from the song wee, which is exactly what it means.

Earthworms are inferior insects, but they are very honorable, as seen in scriptures.Reading four books in the study, I read "Mencius Teng Wengong 2" on Chen Zhongzi: "If you fill in the middle of it, then the worm will be the one who will be the last, and the worm will eat the dry soil and drink the yellow spring." In this way, it will at least have the chance of being questioned and stereotyped, and the sages and sages of that era will use it. Great tones and words, highly praised, this is the same rare reputation as 螬.Later, in "Da Dai Li Encouraging Learning", it says:

"Earthworms do not have the sharpness of claws and teeth, but their tendons and veins are strong. They feed on the earth and drink from the Yellow Springs. They put their hearts into it." And Yang Quan's theory of things said: "There is nothing better than a worm to check oneself and stop one's desires." Both of these are based on what Mencius said, and the latter took what Shao Wuren said in "Yuzi Zhengyi" but said that he eats his dry soil. Going up and down to drink the water from the otherworldly spring is regarded as an ideal and extremely cheap life, which can be described as extremely admirable.But now from our point of view, although earthworms are still or even more admirable things, they are not Chen Zhongzi's first-class people, but actually belong to Yuji's team, because they are the benefactors of human beings in agricultural society. , not only the incorruptible scholars who take care of themselves alone.This kind of fact has never been written in Chinese books. Although this sentence has been mentioned in the book, but I have never seen its significance, so I had to look for it in foreign books. In "Natural History of Selpon", in the thirty-fifth letter to Barrington in 1777, there is mentioned the great work of the earthworm. The root of the tree can be stretched, and the straw and leaves can be dragged into the soil. The most important thing is to throw countless clods from the ground. This is the so-called manure, which is a good fertilizer for plants.He concluded:

"If the land does not have earthworms, it will soon become cold, hard, and lack of fermentation, so it will be barren." Darwin has studied earthworms since he was a student. The number of earthworm nests in a certain area of ​​each field, and how many leaves they drag down to the holes.After working so hard for most of his life, he published his great book "The Formation of Vegetable Loam from Earthworms" in 1881, which proved that most of the fertile soil on the earth was made by the efforts of this little worm. And made.He said: "When we see a large flat land full of turf, we should remember at that time that the smoothness of the ground makes it feel beautiful. This is mostly due to the fact that earthworms have gradually smoothed out the original uneven places. It is also strange to think about it. The entire surface of the flat land is passed through the body of the earthworm, and will be passed through again every few years. The plow is one of the oldest and most valuable human inventions, but in an Long ago, this land was plowed regularly by earthworms. I am afraid that there is no animal in the world that plays such an important role in the history of the earth like this low-level worm. Doubt."

There are probably three parts to the work of earthworms, that is, digging holes, breaking the soil, and burying them.Regarding the drilling of holes, we transcribe part of it based on Tang Musun's "Cultivated Land of Nature" as follows: "Earthworms burrow into the ground in different depths, about two feet. Most of the burrows are smooth and covered with grass leaves. At the end, most of them are a slightly larger house, which is more comfortable covered with leaves. During the day There is often a pile of fine stones, a piece of soil or leaves at the entrance of the cave to prevent intruders such as centipedes, prevent birds from pecking, keep the cave moist, and resist heavy raindrops.

When digging holes in loose soil, earthworms use the pointed part of their body to drill.But if the soil is solid, it uses the mud swallowing method to make holes.Its stomach fills with dirt, and it returns to the ground and abandons it as vermicompost, as is common on grasslands and playing fields. Earthworms swallow soil, not just to burrow, they also swallow soil for all the decaying plant matter in the soil, which they can use for food.After the cave has been completed, the vermicompost thrown on the ground is the soil swallowed for plant food. If there is a lot of excrement, it can be inferred that the leaves here are less used as food, such as the number of excrement is less. , it can be said that the earthworm got a lot of leaves.Several half-eaten leaves can be found in the cave, and we got as many as ninety-one leaves on one occasion.

During the daytime, the earthworm always rests in the hole and closes the door.It is active at night, looking for leaves and nourishment on the ground, or looking for a mate.When planning to go out, the earthworm will come out with its head up. When throwing the vermicompost, it will naturally have its tail on top. It can turn around on a wide place on the road or at the bottom of a hole. " The matter of crushing the soil is very simple. The swallowed soil and even the fine stones are ground in the stomach and become a fine powder. This can be seen in the vermicompost. The burial can be divided into two points.The first is to drag the grass leaf village up to it, and after eating a part of it, it rots and becomes a vegetable soil, which makes the land thicker, which is very beneficial to grains and vegetation.The second is to throw dung up from the bottom to gradually bury the ground.The horizon has not changed, but what is below has moved to the top.This is good farming.It is said that in one place on the west coast of Africa, 62,233 tons of soil per square mile were moved to the ground every year, and in twenty-seven years, 2 feet of soil were deposited on the ground. Flip all the particles to the ground cloud.Darwin calculated that there are an average of 53,000 earthworms per acre of ordinary cultivated land in England, but the number should increase to 500,000 in old fallow land.The 53,000 earthworms in this one mu will pass ten tons of soil through their stomachs and stomachs in one year, and then move them to the ground.In fifteen years this soil will cover the ground to a thickness of three inches, and in sixty years it will be one foot.In this way, although an earthworm is a small thing, its work cannot but be called great.The ancients said that food is the most important thing for the people, and the contribution of earthworms lies in farming. It is said that it can be compared with Yuji or Houji, but it is not appropriate.

I would like to say a few words at the end, which is nothing more than refuting rumors, but just to show the truth for earthworms. "Taiping Yulan" quoted Guo Jingchun's "Earthworm Praise" in September 47th: "Earthworms and earth essences, unintentional insects, who can't be separated from each other, lust in Fuyi, touch and feel things, are impermanent males." He also quoted Liu Jingshu's Yiyuan, Yun Song, Yuan Jia, and Wang Shuang who visited a daughter and made a spouse. Later, I saw that it was a blue-colored white-collar earthworm. At that time, it was called Shuangjiu and the katydid.From this case, we can see that during the Jin and Song Dynasties, people believed that earthworms had no males and would mate with Fuzhu. This kind of legend seems to have become less popular later, but it always has a characteristic, and it is easy to be misunderstood. This is the hermaphroditism.There is a section about earthworms in White's "Observation Records", which can be copied and used as information. It says: "Earthworms come out at night and lie on the grass. Although they stretch their bodies far, they do not leave their caves. , still leave the end of the tail in the hole, so it can quickly retreat to the ground when there is a slight alarm. When stretching its body like this, it will be satisfied with whatever food it can reach, such as grass leaves, straw, leaves, etc. Fragments they often drag into the burrow. Even when mating, its lower body never leaves the burrow, so that no two can have this kind of intercourse except those who live close to each other, but because they are both Hermaphroditic, so it is not difficult to meet a mate, and even dioecious, it is very difficult." The case androgynous and self-identified androgynous are not the same thing, but the ancients often confused them. - "Nanshan Jing" said:

"There is a beast, its shape is like a raccoon but it has fur, its name is Lei, it is male and female, and those who eat it will not be jealous." Hao Langao quoted "The History of Foreign Objects" saying: The civet cat is one, and it is yin and yang.And the third "Bei Shan Jing" says that there is a bird on the mountain called 鵸 Zuo 鵸* (left and right bird), which is a herding female, and it is also an example.And Wang Chongqing commented in the interpretation: "The black beasts are male and female, and they are all natural in nature, so it's not special (left and right birds)." The rationalist's explanation here is of course very interesting, but it misunderstands the scriptures, because the so-called self is not what it is. The same kind but the same body.Guo Jingchun's "Lei Zan" says:

"It's like a beast, one body and two, close to the body, use no fake utensils, wear it gracefully, and don't know how to be jealous." The words are very clear.But although Mr. Guo is very knowledgeable, there is a small error here, because it is impossible to be male and female in fact, it is only said in jokes, and there is no need to pass on vulgar words now.We don’t know about the birds and beasts here, but as far as the earthworm is concerned, its sexual life has been investigated clearly by zoologists, and it is known that it is still the intercourse of two insects and cross-fertilization. "What is Sex" written by Dr. Reid, the book The second chapter discusses inter-animal sex, taking the five as examples of hydra, earthworm, frog, chicken, and dog, we can use a small part of the earthworm to illustrate.It is said that there are about one hundred and fifty segments in the whole body of an earthworm, a pair of ovaries at the thirteenth segment, two pairs of testicles at the tenth and eleventh segments, and two pairs of testes at the fourteenth segment. The most peculiar one is at the ninth to eleventh segment. There are two mouths on the left and right below, and the bottom is a small sac, and the color on the back of the three-two to three-seven joints is special, and it secretes liquid as a cocoon shell when laying eggs.When two worms meet, the head and tail are opposite, each with its ninth to thirteenth segments, the lower part of each other, the output sperm into each other's four small sacs, and then separate, and when the eggs mature, the special part on the back will secrete a tube Shaped, the earthworm retracts and retreats, the body of the cylinder brushes against the thirteen and fourteen joints, the ovum and the sperm in the sac stick to it, and then they merge to form a fetus, the earthworm retracts its head to the front end of the cylinder, this end is closed, and after the first exit The end is also sealed to form a cocoon.The above descriptions are made for brevity, and there are a lot of things that are not clear, but it can roughly understand the situation of earthworm reproduction, and it can be seen that hermaphroditism and being male and female are not the same thing.The reputation of earthworms has nothing to do with us, and there is no need to argue for it, but for the sake of truth, I have to explain that the purpose is not to write some scientific sketches, but some of this kind of materials are transferred here , Although it is a last resort, it is also a very sorry thing.Written on September 24th in Jiashen of the Republic of China, one of the continuations of Vegetation, Trees, Insects and Fish.

(written in September 1944, from "Before the Beginning of Spring")