Revolutionary new food item! :D

[Zephyr]

And the ID has been given:
Amynthas agrestis


Which is a highly "aggressive" Asian worm commonly used for bait.

[Zephyr]

I find it VERY odd how garters have adapted to eat a food found on most every other continent that's not there own.
Could it be that the introduction of the worm to US soil has been a driving force in garter population expansion? :O

[infernalis]

oddly, most studies focus on dwindling populations, instead of growth....

[Zephyr]

oddly, most studies focus on dwindling populations, instead of growth....

Well of course there are other causes... I'm going to be generic and say pollution and loss of habitat, but the big killer is ignorance.

[Garter_Gertie]

You know, one o'the worms I got for P&J today, dropped its [I'm guessing] tail. I've never had that happen before. The 'tail' end went BONKERS.

There are native North American worms, just not in areas that were heavily glatiated like up here.

[Zephyr]

I still find it interesting that a species like Butler's or dekay's has adapted to the new food items though. Perhaps one of the only reasons for the development of the butler's as a species was because of the invasive worms! :O

[KITKAT]

I still find it interesting that a species like Butler's or dekay's has adapted to the new food items though. Perhaps one of the only reasons for the development of the butler's as a species was because of the invasive worms! :O

More and more, we have worms and not frogs. The reduction in frog populations is very noticeable in my area. Perhaps they gradually switched from frogs to worms?

[Zephyr]

That's alot easier for me. :P
Although I can't quite find records saying they even eat/ate frogs. The article I read says they're basically neotenic radix.

[Garter_Gertie]

What about Gertie? She's only been eating worms for 300 years or less. Prior to Post Contact, there were no earth worms in MN at all, but for that aquatic one.

Opertunistic, as it's been said of garters. She's not develope in 300 years or so because of worms. Garters have been here forever, as well as north in Canada.

And Dekays? Like where's their usual, normal basic habitat? Maybe unglaciated and they've eaten worms all along? And just 'went over' to the non-native North American species of worms because they were handy?

[Garter_Gertie]

It's far more reasonable to think the snakes adapted to whatever the food source they could eat than a species evolving because in hundreds - we're talking recent history here and survival of the fittest takes WAY longer than that - of years invasive worm species came about.