Mesenchytraeus solifugus

Mesenchytraeus solifugus

Mesenchytraeus solifugus is a black, about one and a half inches long and about an inch by measuring worm, which is active only at temperatures around the freezing point. In some degrees below it freezes. If the temperature rises above 10 ° C, it dies, and the carcass begins at temperatures above 20 ° C to decompose. The color of his skin is a dark brown or black.

Mesenchytraeus solifugus lives in the ice of the glacier (which is why it is also called glacier ice worm ) in the southern coastal region of Alaska to the coastal region of British Columbia, the Cascade Range in Washington to the Three Sisters in Oregon. Once the surface is shaded in the afternoon, shows the worm on the surface, in the evening they can cover the surface of the snow almost. The population density is a function of location, it is located at 100-200 in Alaska, the record density was at Suiattle Glacier at about 2600 specimens per square meter.

The worm feeds on microorganisms that live in the ice of glaciers, but can go without food two years. Its features make it interesting for the U.S. space agency NASA, as it promises to be hints about the possibility of extraterrestrial life at about the Jovian moon Europa.