Name That Worm!

By Mike Lee

Friday, May 6, 2011 at 3:03 p.m.

 Birch Aquarium

For wanna-be scientists and witty residents it’s the chance of a lifetime: name two new species of “beautiful” deep-sea worms.

Starting May 30, the public can vote online or at the aquarium on June 4. One name will be selected from the public at large and another will be chosen from a K-12 school.

Worm No. 1, found at 2,893 meters below the surface

The Birch Aquarium at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography is giving the public that opportunity through May 25 in an effort to drum up support for the world’s oceans.

Just think of the possibilities.

There’s Lowly Worm, the star of Richard Scarry‘s children’s books.

There’s Dennis Rodman, the former NBA star nicknamed “The Worm.”

There’s that relative who’s always asking for money.

Let your imaginations run free; one Star Wars-loving scientist has named a species of wasp Polemistus chewbacca after the hairy movie character.

Scripps scientists, in association with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, discovered the worms living upon whale carcasses on ocean floor near Monterey. So-called “whale falls” often create unusual communities of marine organisms that can feed off the carcass for decades.

The new worms are tiny — just a few centimeters long — and part of the family Hesionidae. Only 10 hesionids have been described from the deep sea, and only one has been described from a whale fall.

Because it’s very hard to find dead whales at the bottom of the open ocean, scientists actually have sunk carcasses found on California beaches and then studied them.

Here’s how the contest works:

First, go to the aquarium’s website to meet the worms and get inspiration for their monikers.

Then, click on the hot link for submitting entries and follow the prompts or visit the aquarium on its SEA Days event May 21 and file an entry there.

Scientists from Scripps, which is part of the University of California San Diego, will narrow the suggestions to three for each worm.

New official scientific names will be unveiled June 8 as part of the aquarium’s World Ocean Day celebration.

The name game is almost wide open but there are guidelines.

According to the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, a species must be given a Latin “binomial” – a name consisting of two parts (a genus term and a species term) – and a researcher must publish an official description of the species in scientific literature.

Birch officials are asking the public follow that format and provide a description of how they came up with their suggestion, which will be included in the published paper.

Names can include the use geographic, descriptive, commemorative or even nonsense words. They do not need to be direct Latin translations. For example, a species of fly from Humbug Creek, Calif., was named Apolysis humbugi.

mike.lee@uniontrib.com; 619-293-2034. Follow on Twitter @sdutlee.