For the first time in their two-decade-long search, scientists at the University of Idaho have finally been able to capture two living specimens of the mythical ‘giant’ Palouse earthworm - Driloleirus americanus - which has been written off as an extinct creature.

After years of tedious search, an adult and a juvenile specimen of the huge, fragrant earthworms were discovered by the researchers on March 27. The fabled worms were located in the Palouse region of Washington and Idaho; and the adult specimen has now been positively identified by San James, an earthworm expert at the University of Kansas.

The fabled earthworm was granted the ‘endangered species’ status by the US Fish and Wildlife Service last year, after an appeal from the Center for Biological Diversity, which described the earthworm as a large, pinkish-white creature that can grow up to 3 feet in length. The earthworm, which apparently spits at strangers, lives in permanent burrows that are as deep as 15 feet.

While petitioning fpr an endangered species status to the giant Palouse earthworm, Noah Greenwald, biodiversity program director at the Center had said: “Sometimes reaching three feet in length, white in color, and reportedly possessing a unique lily smell, the giant Palouse earthworm is found only in eastern Washington and northern Idaho and would be a tragedy to lose.”