Moment a worm the length of a five-year-old is discovered by a boy playing in garden

Barnaby Domigan, nine, discovered a Worm-zilla in his back garden – measuring the length of a five-year-old boy – as the unusual find has made the schoolboy famous

A schoolboy was left shocked after finding a worm the length of a five-year-old while playing in his garden.

The jaw-dropping moment the metre-long earthworm was found was photographed by Barnaby Domigan’s, nine, dad, Chris.

Speaking about the shocking moment his son found the worm-zilla in a stream outside the family home in Christchurch, New Zealand, mum Jo, 40, said: “He was amazed and absolutely in shock that a worm could be so big, and he was very excited.”

She continued to say: “Barnaby was playing in our yard with his siblings – Frankie, Pearl, Abraham and Remi.

“He was exploring the water to see if there was anything interesting in there and when he found the giant worm he used a stick to pull it out.

“We didn’t measure it, but he thinks it was as long as both his arms so we imagine it was around one metre long.

“He called my husband over to quickly take the photo.”

To the shock of his parents, the nine-year-old wanted to keep his unusual discovery – but his mum and dad weren’t so keen.

Instead they came to a compromise, with Barnaby’s mum saying: “So he put it back on the edge of the water where he found it.

“Then I put a picture on Facebook that night, and the next day when we discovered how interested everyone was, we went back out to find it but it had gone, presumed to have floated away.”

Following this, Barnaby’s discovery became a phenomenon on the internet. So much so that he soon found himself on radio and TV across New Zealand and overseas.

His mum said: “He thinks it’s wonderful.

“He has really, really enjoyed all the radio and television interviews and is very excited by how interested the whole world has become.

“We are so glad that a child out exploring nature has become a global story! And he feels very, very grateful that he was the person who got to find this amazing worm.”

And since the bizarre incident, the family have learnt that there are several species of worm in New Zealand that are capable of growing over 30cm in length.

In fact, the largest of them all – the Spenceriella gigantea – can grow up to 1.3 metres long.

John Marris, the curator of the entomology research collection at New Zealand’s University of Lincoln, said that these types of worms were typically found in undisturbed areas – like forests.

He added that it was previously rare to find them in a domestic garden, saying: “There are some very large native earthworms known – a metre isn’t beyond the borders of reason.”