Worm Gear
Is there a wormguy or wormlady in your life? Searching for that perfect gift to express your wormliest affection? There is a bit of werm* gear out there. Sadly, there's a pleothora of oligochaete fun stuff and a dearth of polychaete toys. Let me know if you've found any other cool wirmy things other wormers might like.
 Computer Games - The fine folks at TEAM17 have produced an addictive series of computer games where one team of worms attempts to destroy the other with a variety of wacky weapons. I highly recommend trying one of the early games before graduating to 'Worms 3D' or later. Games can be played solo or head-to-head over LAN. I've found 'Worms: World Party' a marvelous way to relax after dealing with Prionospio all day, and have reached the rank of Superstar in deathmatch )much to the detriment of some manuscripts). |
 Polychaetes: an Interactive Identification Guide (CD-ROM) - On the serious side of worming, I believe this is the single most useful identification tool polychaete students and researchers should have on hand. This collection of interactive keys is a marvelous place to start for most world genera and several austral species. Although there are a few bugs in the disc, most importantly Robin, Pat, and Chris have set the standard for how regions can publish their atlases, broaden taxonomic reliability, and start unifying our various polychaete world views. Maybe when more people become less frustrated with polychaete taxonomy we'll all get more of those vital reviews and monographs written! |
| Books - While we all scrounge for those copies of Day, Hartman, and the famous (or infamous Kristian?) pink book there are some wonderful texts out there still in print. Most of you probably have them, but how about a present for your poor grad student? Polychaetes by Greg Rouse and Fredrik Pleijel, Polychaetes and Allies: A Southern Synthesis, Taxonomic Atlas of the Santa Maria Basin and Western Santa Barbara Channel (4 parts).
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 POLIKEY - Along the lines of the Polychaete Interactive CD is a set of higher level polychaete keys made freely available by Chris Glasby and Kristian Fauchald and their respective financial supporters. |
 Tools of the trade - Looking for superfine medical forceps? How about those iris scissors that are so handy for pharynx dissections? Build your kit here. |
* All spellings of 'worm' will be tolerated and inconsistent throughout this site (i.e., werm, wurm, vurm, etc.)
last modified 9 October 2005