Ice worm

For methane ice worms, see Hesiocaeca methanicola.

Ice worm
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Annelida
Class:	Clitellata
Subclass:	Oligochaeta
Order:	Haplotaxida
Family:	Enchytraeidae
Genus:	Mesenchytraeus Eisen, 1878 [1]

Ice worms are species of the worm genus Mesenchytraeus that live in glacial ice. They include Mesenchytraeus solifugus, M. harrimani, M. kuril, M. maculatus and M. obscurus.

The first ice worms species were discovered in 1887 in Alaska, on the Muir Glacier .^[2] These glacier ice worms can be found on glaciers in Alaska, Washington, Oregon and British Columbia. They have not been found in other glaciated regions of the world. The name "solifugus" is Latin for "sun-avoiding", as ice worms retreat underneath the ice before dawn. Enzymes in ice worms have very low optimal temperatures, and can be denatured at even a few degrees above 0 °C (32 °F). When ice worms are exposed to temperatures as high as 5 °C (41 °F), their membrane structures disassociate and fall apart (i.e., "melt") causing the worm itself to "liquify". Ice worms are several centimeters long, and can be black, blue, or white in color. The ice worms come to the surface of the glaciers in the evening and morning. On Suiattle Glacier in the North Cascades population counts indicated over 7 billion ice worms on that glacier alone.

It is not known how ice worms tunnel through the ice. Some scientists believe they travel through microscopic fissures in ice sheets, while others believe they secrete some chemical which can melt ice by lowering its freezing point, like an antifreeze. They feed on snow algae.

Ice worms in culture

Scottish-born Canadian poet of the Yukon Robert W. Service wrote a poem, The Ballad of the Ice-worm Cocktail, in which a fake ice worm made of spaghetti is the subject of a bar bet. This may have contributed to the impression that ice worms are mythical creatures .^[2] When the Ice Worms Nest Again is a folk song that became popular in the 1920s and 1930s, and whose lyrics may have been written by Robert Service .^[3] There is a different song of the same name by Canadian artist Jenny Omnichord, which is highly factually accurate. Organisms similar to ice worms have appeared in science fiction in the short story Glacial by Alastair Reynolds and the novel Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton. In the annual February Ice Worm Festival of Cordova, Alaska, a long imitation ice worm is paraded through the streets like a Chinese new year dragon dance

References

1. ^ Kathryn A. Coates, Jan M. Locke, Brenda M. Healy & Mark J. Wetzel (August 26, 2008). "The aphanoneuran and clitellate Annelida occurring in the United States and Canada: families Enchytraeidae and Propappidae". University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. http://www.inhs.uiuc.edu/~mjwetzel/EnchytraeidaeNA.html. Retrieved January 22, 2010. 
2. ^ ^{a b} Kimi Ross (2009). "The Glacier Ice Worm". BellaOnline. http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art59942.asp. 
3. ^ Service, Robert William (1910). The Trail of '98. New York: Grosset & Dunlap. p. 209. http://books.google.com/books?id=SrspAAAAYAAJ. 

External links

• North Cascade Glaciers ice worms research
• Seattle Times Article on Iceworms