Worms coming topside during and after rain used to be explained as them simply trying not to drown in water-logged soil. As biologists learned more about annelids (the group that includes earthworms, ragworms, and leeches), though, we figured out that some of them breathe a little differently than most land animals, and don’t drown as easily as you or I would in a watery hole in the ground.
Earthworms breathe by passing oxygen and carbon dioxide through their skin. For the oxygen to get through the skin and into the worms’ bloodstream properly, there needs to be some moisture on the skin, so the worms produce mucus to keep them moist and slimy. Moisture in the ground keeps the mucus from drying out, so soil that’s a little wet actually helps the worms breathe easy. Even if the soil is very saturated or an earthworm is submerged in water, it can survive as long as there’s sufficient oxygen to pull in through the skin.
Earthworms breathe by passing oxygen and carbon dioxide through their skin. For the oxygen to get through the skin and into the worms’ bloodstream properly, there needs to be some moisture on the skin, so the worms produce mucus to keep them moist and slimy. Moisture in the ground keeps the mucus from drying out, so soil that’s a little wet actually helps the worms breathe easy. Even if the soil is very saturated or an earthworm is submerged in water, it can survive as long as there’s sufficient oxygen to pull in through the skin.
Now, coming to the surface can be risky. There’s hungry birds, careless humans, and the possibility that a worm will get marooned on a sidewalk and dry out. If they’re coming up to mate, though, the risk involved may be overcome by the drive to reproduce. Surfacing isn’t necessarily suicidal, either. The worms don’t die, as soon as the rain stops, and many do make it back underground before they’re in danger. If death was guaranteed, we’d have no surfacing worms left to wonder about.
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