How? What? Why?

I know they're hermaphrodites.

Yes, Tegan but it still doesn't cover the whole answer!

I'm doing it in stages. That's the bit I remember from school biology. The rest I've googled. However, it all sounds very complicated [but involved cocoons] and the baby worms emerge after somethingorother days fully formed [which sounds really cute]. I think I missed my true vocation as a biology teacher .

I'm sure that was all explained to us in science classes at school, but don't think it registered with me.

Love it, Tegan !!

And they do it at night .

My late stepfather was a very enthusiastic nature lover, always remember the time mother and I were back earlier than expected from a shopping trip only to find him boiling up some strange smelling stuff on the Aga. Turns out it was a recipe he had found for moth bait!

Then of course there was the time that we found him and my Ds1 in the cupboard under the stairs with a jar of glow worms............

But even he couldn't answer the earthworm reproduction question. I seem to remember him phoning the Natural History Museum, but can't recall the outcome.

How do you tell which end of a worm is its mouth ?

Tickle its tummy and see which end laughs !

Sorry folks - it's the only joke I can ever remember (mega groans from famliy!!)

Put the worm into a bowl of flour and wait for it to fart...

Even though earthworms have both sets of sexual organs they must mate with another to reproduce.

I remember disecting a worm in a biology lesson and it was full of soil.
That's all I can recall, must have been a good lesson

I managed to have a stomach ache and stay off school every time we had to the dissecting days loomed. eyes of sheep, poor little frogs and, yes, worms.

The answer is sure to be on Wiki... but life's too short.

Yes, I remember something from biology lessons. Something to do with that smooth bit half way down their bodies.

They lie next to each other and swap sperm. Then the saddle (or clitellum) forms an egg capsule that they kind of shuffle down their bodies and deposit in the soil.
Snails are more extravert hermaphrodites - they shoot each other with sharp darts, reel each other in (terribly S and M) and then impregnate each other using very, very long penises.

Mmm!if I had to choose would I rather be a worm or a snail?

snail definitely.

Worm! Nothing's going to reel me in with a sharp dart!!

I enjoyed dissecting a frog at school, but it kept staring at me while I cut bits off.

It was dead

It must have been the frog's ghost then, staring out of it's dead eyes!

The worm's method sounds boring but undemanding. Snail for more fun.

Thanks feetle - I can now astound the family by having a different punch line !.

Last year nice neighbour and I watched snails mating - it took AGES and we were definitely bored before they were. (Sort of remember that feeling )