Wednesday 5 September 2012

The Lugworm - Arenicola marina - An Admiral Annelid for Anglers

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Much of a lugworm's life is spent buried arse-up, head-down, swallowing filth and shitting out sand. It's a pretty disgusting looking creature with a very weird mouth, and both male and female sex organs. However, the lugworm enables man to procure the most tasty of meals.

Illustrations by Ashworth, 1912

A Student's Text-book of Zoology: Protozoa to Chaetognatha. By Adam Sedgwick 1898

In order to capture specimens of Arenicola marina, a spade and bucket are required. Below, a man known in West Cork as Garlic Bread Boysie demonstrates his skill in the art of lugworm digging.


The London Quarterly and Holborn Review, Volume 23. 1861

Having procured a bucket of live lugworm specimens, the next stage for the intrepid anglers on the Mizen Peninsula last week was to closely examine the papillae of the proboscis using a stereo microscope impale the poor bastards on hooks and fish with them. The pollock below was my second catch. It was caught with a lugworm. When I dispatched it with the basher, it convulsively regurgitated it's penultimate catch, a sand eel. Two for one, and the larger tasted champion, as did the lager.


A Catalogue of the British Non-Parasitical Worms in the Collection of the British Museum. By George Johnston. 1865


For those with a piscatorial interest, rather than purely in the annelid, here's some more images from my recent angling & mineralogy holiday, staying at Derek & Christine's in Co. Cork with Boysie & Burnsy. Thanks to you all for a great time.

Fosters can with pollock and a wrasse for scale

This guy had one hell of a landing net

Nice cast Burnsy

Cheers Lads

Arsenopyrite crystals and a doubly terminated quartz floater crystal

piscatorial


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Silver crystals growing from the nitrate - Arbre de Diane



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