Long thought extinct, the worm was rediscovered in the past year occupying tiny swatches of the heavily farmed Palouse region along the Washington-Idaho border.

''This worm is the stuff that legends and fairy tales are made of,'' worm supporter Steve Paulson declared. ''What kid wouldn't want to play with a 3-foot-long, lily smelling, soft pink worm that spits?''

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has not yet seen the petition regarding Driloleirus americanus, agency spokesman Tom Buckley said in Spokane. Normally when the agency gets a request, it will consider whether an emergency listing is needed. Then it will do a 90-day review to determine if the issue warrants additional study, Buckley said.

''When you consider how the Palouse prairie has been utilized, with all the agriculture down there, how anything like that survived the effects of agriculture is beyond me,'' Buckley said.