when roads have been cut through hills, I have seen their burrows as much as fifteen or twenty feet below the surface. (There is no record of his doing so.) Doane added that “this one species is very abundant. He was glad of Smith’s interests and planned on collecting additional specimens in the spring breeding season. Known in modern times as the giant Palouse earthworm, Doane’s earthworms have become legendary - rumored to spit, smell like lilies, and grow to three feet long - but also rare, with just a handful of sightings over the past century.ĭoane, an entomologist, wrote Smith again on January 16.

are about average size, some are very much larger.” Several months later, Smith, Professor of Systematic Zoology and Curator of the Museum of Natural History, University of Illinois, writes a description of the worms, describing them as a new species, Megascolides americanus. Doane says that he has sent “a few specimens from the vicinity. Rennie Wilbur Doane of the Department of Botany and Zoology at the Washington Agricultural College and School of Science in Pullman writes a short letter to earthworm expert Frank Smith. On December 2, 1896, the 'giant Palouse earthworm' as it will come to be called, is first reported.

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