The Mud Wigglers

                                                                   The Mud Wigglers

                The Mud Wigglers live in muddy fields and are only found in the humid north eastern regions of India. This rare insect comes from a family of Beetles. It is about an inch long and 0.8 centimeters wide with a long abdomen that helps it wiggle through the muddy fields. They are light brown in color, which works as a camouflage to keep away any predators, mainly birds. A mud wiggler lays its eggs encapsulated in a layer of mud, and only leaves after the mud has dried. The eggs take about 3 weeks to come out of the mud enclosure and begin its feeding cycle during which it becomes a fully formed wiggler. The life span for a mud wiggler is an average of 4 months. The wigglers feed upon living parasites and weeds, which makes them a great source of remedy for the farmers in the region.                            

           In addition to its beneficial diet, the mud wigglers have also been attributed as fertilizers for maneuvering their way through the mud making it soft and distributing fertilizers and seeds evenly through the fields. Also, the feces excreted by the Wigglers are absorbed well into the soil and works as a fertilizer. The local farmers usually sing a folk song dedicated to the wiggler which translated in English goes “Oh the still soil and field of grains, you the wiggler bring it alive and so we thrive, we thrive.”