Arrrrrrrrr Mate! It's the 'Black Spot' for you! Just had to ask that didn't you...

Well, let's see, the 'Phylum' is Annelida which discribes their segmented body (rings). This phylum includes all animals having no jointed legs and having segmented bodies. Think of them as a living stack of connected doughnuts. Leaches, fresh and saltwater worms (fitting the bill), and earthworms, fall under this catagory. Since this page is about earthworms, let's follow that branch of the worm family tree a bit further out on the limb.

'Class' is the next category and for the earthworm that is Chaetopoda which means that they have 'setae' (stiff hairs) on most of their segments. The earthworms with which I am familiar, use their setae to lock themselves in their burrows, and in gaining purchase for locomotion. Now ya know, worms got class!

Oligchaeta is the 'Order' earthworms fall under. The name is given because of the lack of a distinct head (a nice way of saying you can't tell their head form their ... er ...well... nevermind), and those (worms) who fall under this catagory are also hermaphroditic, clever touch this as it takes the guesswork out of procreation which is complex enough even for beings with cute well defined heads.

Then comes 'Family', and after that 'Genus', and after that most have a 'Species' name, and even a sub-species name and and and well... an example of this might be: of the family 'Lumbricidae', the genus 'Lumbricus', the species 'Terrestris' or L. terrestris for short. Those of us of a simpler persuasion call this one the 'Northern Nightcrawler' or a dozen or so other common names.

All this 'dead language' stuff might seem a bit much when talking about worms, however, if you want to be sure about which kind of worm you speak, and want the person you are addressing to know as well (or vs-a-vs), then terms like "Red worm" or "Nightcrawler" or "Manure worm" etc., just will not do. Dealers commonly use such terms to describe their stock as few are willing to sit down with a microscope and count segments and setae, establish color patterns, disect, and catalog the worms they raise. On the other hand, most buyers haven't the foggiest idea what they are getting anyway, so... unless you are willing to spend a little time in the books, you gets what you gets.