The Minhocoa

The Minhocao is a giant, burrowing creature whose name means “giant earthworm” in Portuguese. Tales of the Minhocao were widely reported during the 1800s, and native legends go back for centuries. However, by the 20th century, the creature seemed to have become inactive or gone extinct.

The Minhocao is black in color. Size varies, but some reports say the creature can reach a whopping length of 150 feet and a width of up to 15 feet. It is covered with an armor-like hide, and has horns on its head. The creature is known for its destructive burrowing. When it burrows, trees are uprooted; river channels are created; large trenches are cut into the landscape; roads are collapsed and destroyed; homes are often damaged as well. The Minhocao even causes tremors with its underground movements!

In 1847, the American Journal of Science ran an article titled "On the Minhocao of the Goyanes." I have reprinted the piece in its entirety below:

"Luiz Antonio da Silva e Souza, whose acquaintance I made during my travels, and to whom we owe the most valuable researches on the history and statistics of Goyaz, says, in speaking of the lake of Padre Aranda, situated in this vast province, that it is inhabited by minhocoes; then he adds that these monsters—it is thus he expresses himself—dwell in the deepest parts of the lake, and have often drawn horses and horned cattle under the water. The industrious Pizarro, who is so well acquainted with all that relates to Brazil, mentions nearly the same thing, and points out the lake Feia, which is likewise situated in Goyaz, as also being inhabited by minhocoes.

"I had already heard of these animals several times, and I considered them as fabulous, when the disappearance of horses, mules and cattle, in fording the rivers, was certified by so many persons, that it became impossible for me altogether to doubt it.

"When I was at the Rio dos Piloes, I also heard much of the minhocoes; I was told that there were some in this river, and that at the period when the waters had risen, they had often dragged in horses and mules whilst swimming across the river.

"The word minhocuo is an augmentative of minhoca, which in Portuguese signifies earth-worm; and indeed they state that the monster in question absolutely resembles these worms, with this difference, that it has a visible mouth; they also add, that it is black, short, and of enormous size; that it does not rise to the surface of the water, but that it causes animals to disappear by seizing them by the belly.

"When, about twenty days after, having left the village and the river of Piloes, I was staying with the Governor of Meiapont, M. Joaquim Alvez de Oliveira, I asked him about these minhocoes: he confirmed what I had already been told, mentioned several recent accidents caused by these animals, and assured me at the same time, from the report of several fishermen, that the minhocao, notwithstanding its very round form, was a true fish provided with fins.

"I at first thought that the minhocao might be the Gymnolui carapa , which according to Pohl is found in the Rio Vermetho, which is near to the Rio dos Piloes; but it appears from the Austrian writer that this species of fish bears the name of Terma termi in the country; and moreover the effects produced by the Gymnoti are, according the Pohl, well known to the mulattos and negroes who often felt them, and have nothing in common with what is related of the minhocao. Professor Gervais, to whom I mentioned my doubts, directed my attention to the description which P.L. Bischoff has given of the Lepidosiren [South American lungfish], and indeed the little we know of the minhocao agrees well enough with what is  said of the rare and singular animal discovered by M. Natterer.

"That naturalist found his Lepidosiren in some stagnant waters near the Rio da Madeira and of the Amazon: the minhocao is not only said to be in rivers, but also in lakes. It is, without doubt,  very far from the lake Feia to the two localities mentioned by the  Austrian traveller; but we know that the heats are excessive at  Goyaz. La Serra da Paranahyba e do Tocantim, which crosses  this province, is one of the most remarkable dividers of the gigantic  water-courses of the north of Brazil from those of the  south; the Rio dos Piloes belongs to the former, as does the  Rio da Madeira. The Lepidosiren paradoxa of M. Natterer has  actually the form of a worm, like the minhocao. Both have fins;  but it is not astonishing that they have not always been recognized  in the minhocao, if, as in the Lepidosiren, they are in the  animal of the Rio dos Piloes reduced to simple rudiments. "The  teeth of the Lepidosiren," says Bischoff, "are well-fitted for  seizing and tearing its prey; and to judge of them from their  structure and from the muscles of their jaw, they must move with  considerable force." These characters agree extremely well with  those which we must of necessity admit in the minhocao, since it  seizes very powerfully upon large animals and drags them away to  devour them. It is therefore probably that the minhocao is an  enormous species of Lepidosiren; and we might, if this conjecture  were changed into certainty, join this name to that of the minhocao  to designate the animal of the lake Feia and of the Rio dos Piloes. Zoologists who travel over these distant countries will do well to sojourn on the borders of the lake Feia, of the lake Padre Aranda, or of the Rio dos Piloes, in order to ascertain the perfect truth—to learn precisely what the minhocao is; or whether, notwithstanding the testimony of so many persons, even of the most enlightened men, its existence should be, which is not very likely, rejected as fabulous.

—American Journal of Science, 2:4:130-131, 1847.

I talk a bit about the Minhocao in my book Water Monsters South of the Border, one of Loren Coleman's "Top Ten Cryptozoology Books of 2016."


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