St Johnstone chairman Steven Brown has criticised the "outrageous" decision not to allocate his club more tickets for Saturday's League Cup semi-final.

The Scottish Professional Football League decided to make extra tickets available to Hibernian fans instead because of concerns over segregation.
Hibs had already received around 11,500 tickets, with Saints allocated 3,400.
Brown said he understood fans' "anger and disappointment" at the timing of "this unacceptable fiasco".
The decision came five days before the game at Hearts' Tynecastle Stadium.
Hearts owner Ann Budge, in a separate statement, revealed that her club had been forced to increase surveillance and security inside and outside their ground to address problems caused by recent fan behaviour.
Brown told St Johnstone's website: "I fully share in the frustration caused by the delay in the announcement not to allocate Main Stand tickets to Saints fans and I can understand the anger and disappointment of ticketless fans."
Scottish Championship club Hibernian had received approximately 11,500 tickets for the 17,529 capacity stadium in their home city when the initial allocation was announced.
Their Premiership opponents were allocated the 3,400-capacity Roseburn Stand.
However, the Perth club were told to expect a further tranche for the Main Stand, as had been the case when they played Aberdeen in the 2014 semi-final.
"Coming at a time when fan engagement has been recently stated as a key objective for the future of our game, I find the timing of this decision - five days before the match - outrageous and I would state that this is totally unacceptable to St Johnstone Football Club," added Brown.
"I would hope that lessons are learned from this fiasco in order to avoid any repeat of the uncertainty and disillusionment suffered by the people who matter most - the supporters."
Gavin Newlands, the MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire North, has called for an investigation into a decision he considered "shocking", "shambolic" and "grossly unfair".


Business Secretary Vince Cable has defended the privatisation of Royal Mail, despite criticism from the spending watchdog.

Mr Cable said it had achieved its primary objective of selling the shares and reducing the risk to taxpayers.
It came after the National Audit Office said too much emphasis was put on rushing the sale, at the expense of value for money.
Shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna said it was "a first-class disaster".
But Mr Cable insisted the government had been "right to take a cautious approach".
Royal Mail shares are more than 70% higher than the 2013 sale price.
The Communication Workers Union called for Mr Cable to quit over the sale.
Billy Hayes, general secretary of the union, said it was a "botched, panic sale" and the business secretary "should consider his position".
Mr Cable refused to apologise, and said that the sale had raised £2bn for the taxpayer, with a further £1.5bn from the 30% stake in Royal Mail which it had retained.
The privatisation of Royal Mail took place amid huge public interest and the shares rose by 38% from 330p to 455p on their first day of trading, meaning taxpayers had lost out on at least £750m in the sale.
The NAO report concluded that the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills was too cautious when setting the sale price.
"The department was very keen to achieve its objective of selling Royal Mail, and was successful in getting the company listed on the FTSE 100," said Amyas Morse, head of the NAO.
"Its approach, however, was marked by deep caution, the price of which was borne by the taxpayer."
A planned postal workers' strike, which was eventually cancelled after the privatisation, also affected the government's sale price.
Demand for Royal Mail shares was 24 times the maximum number available to investors, the NAO said, but the banks overseeing the sale advised there was not sufficient demand to justify a significantly higher figure.
George Godber, a fund manager at Miton Group, told Radio 4 that he was "astounded" by the low price.
"I thought it was significantly underpriced. In stock market terms, this was the London 2012 Olympic ticket moment, lots of people applied but very few got to go to the opening ceremony."
Managers from two of these advising banks - Goldman Sachs and UBS - said market uncertainty and the complexity of the deal led them to a conservative price when they were questioned by MPs in November last year.
They said there was a significant risk that raising the price past the £3.30 they had advised would diminish investor interest.
The NAO acknowledged the government had benefited from the increase in Royal Mail's share price via the 30% stake it still holds.
But it argues the benefits could have been even greater had the government kept a larger stake, while still fulfilling its policy objective of reducing public ownership to below 50%.
With demand for the flotation uncertain, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills chose 21 "priority investors" to maximise its chances of successfully selling all the shares.
It believed that these investors would be long-term, supportive shareholders.
It did not, however, confirm this with a binding agreement, because it said this would have reduced the sale price of the shares.
Eventually, 22% of Royal Mail was sold to 16 of the priority investors who had bid for shares at 330p.
By the end of January 2014, just six priority investors remained among the largest shareholders, who together held just 12% of the shares.
The spending watchdog also noted that a small number of shareholders, designated as "priority investors", had made significant profits from the increase in the sale price following the privatisation.
The government had allocated larger proportions of their shares orders to these 16 investors, in the belief that they would form part of a stable long-term and supportive shareholder base.
However, almost half of the shares allocated to them had been sold within a few weeks of the IPO.
Margaret Hodge, chair of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), said the sharp rise in Royal Mail's share price since the sale showed "the department had no clue what it was doing."
Mr Umunna said Mr Cable could no longer dismiss the share price rise.
"He and David Cameron have serious questions to answer on the hundreds of millions of pounds they have lost British taxpayers and cannot duck responsibility for what has happened," he added.


Israel has sealed off the city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, following an upsurge in deadly attacks.

The Israeli army says it is sending hundreds more soldiers to Hebron and officials are withholding some tax transfers to the Palestinian Authority.
It comes after an Israeli man was killed and his wife and two children wounded after their car was fired on near the Jewish settlement of Otniel.
It was the second fatal attack on an Israeli in the West Bank in two days.
Thirty-five Israelis have now been killed in a wave of knife, gun and car-ramming attacks since October.
More than 200 Palestinians - mostly attackers, Israel says - have also been killed in that period.
On Friday a group of world powers known as the Quartet issued a report warning of "perpetual occupation and conflict" between Israelis and Palestinians unless both sides take positive action.
The Hebron closure will limit movement except for humanitarian cases, Israeli military spokesman Lt Col Peter Lerner said.
He added that this was the military's "most substantial" move since 2014. The Hebron area is home to some 700,000 people.
The victims of Friday's attack were members of the same family. Local media named the dead man as 48-year-old Michael "Miki" Mark, a father-of-10.
He was killed when the car crashed after the attack. His wife and two children were taken to hospital for treatment.
Israeli forces were still searching for a Palestinian gunman.
In the wake of the attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered Israel to deduct from tax it collects on behalf of the PA the equivalent amount which the PA pays each month to Palestinian militants jailed in Israel.
"Israel believes that the encouragement of terrorism by the PA leadership - in incitement and in payments to terrorists and their families - constitutes incentive for murder," the prime minister's office said.
The shooting happened on Route 60, about nine miles (15km) south of the settlement of Kiryat Arba, where a day earlier 13-year-old Hallel Yaffa Ariel was stabbed to death in her bedroom by a Palestinian as she slept.
Her attacker, from a nearby village, was shot dead by settlement guards.
Hours before the shooting attack, a Palestinian woman was shot dead by security forces in Hebron, adjacent to Kiryat Arba, after drawing a knife, police said.
Police said the woman had tried to stab a policewoman who was searching her at the entrance to a shrine revered by Jews and Muslims.
Elsewhere in the West Bank a Palestinian man died during clashes at the Qalandiya checkpoint, near Ramallah, where Muslims were trying to cross to Jerusalem for prayers.
Local hospital officials say he had a heart attack brought on by inhaling tear gas.


Jordan Williams' screamer gave Barrow victory over high-flying Tranmere at Holker Street and moved the hosts two points off the National League play-off places.

Midway through the first half Ross Hannah had a chance to put Barrow ahead, but his shot was blocked by Michael Ihiekwe.
Andy Cook's excellent volley from 25 yards out, his 19th league goal of the season for Rovers, broke the deadlock and he almost doubled the advantage just before the break.
Barrow levelled in the 63rd minute when Moussa Diarra attacked the ball from a free-kick that was spilled for Inoh Effiong to tap in moments after coming on.
Six minutes later Akil Wright's interception fed Williams, who stunningly found the top corner from 20 yards.
Match report supplied by the Press Association
Match ends, Barrow 2, Tranmere Rovers 1.
Second Half ends, Barrow 2, Tranmere Rovers 1.
Substitution, Tranmere Rovers. Cole Stockton replaces Jay Harris.
Substitution, Tranmere Rovers. Connor Jennings replaces Adam Mekki.
Jay Harris (Tranmere Rovers) is shown the yellow card.
Substitution, Tranmere Rovers. Andy Mangan replaces Ritchie Sutton.
Goal!  Barrow 2, Tranmere Rovers 1. Jordan Williams (Barrow).
Goal!  Barrow 1, Tranmere Rovers 1. Inih Effiong (Barrow).
Substitution, Barrow. Inih Effiong replaces Ross Hannah.
Substitution, Barrow. Akil Wright replaces Dan Rowe.
Second Half begins Barrow 0, Tranmere Rovers 1.
First Half ends, Barrow 0, Tranmere Rovers 1.
Goal!  Barrow 0, Tranmere Rovers 1. Andy Cook (Tranmere Rovers).
First Half begins.
Lineups are announced and players are warming up.


Ecstasy with a street value of about £35,000 has been recovered following a police raid in Denny.

Officers said a package weighing over a kilo, which had been delivered from the Netherlands, was discovered at a home in the town on 8 April.
The raid was a joint operation between Border Force and the National Crime Agency.
A 23-year-old man was arrested and charged and appeared at Falkirk Sheriff Court on Tuesday.
The package contained 990g of ecstasy worth £29,700.
Ecstasy tablets worth £4,840 were also recovered at the property.
Det Sgt Forbes Wilson said: "This was an excellent piece of proactive work and shows how effective multi-agency work can be.
"It's always satisfying to get drugs off our streets, particularly when it's a high quantity."


The Prince of Wales has paid tribute to the Welsh National Opera on its 70th anniversary.

A special concert was staged at Buckingham Palace on Thursday.
Since its inception in 1946, WNO has provided a stage to some of the world's biggest opera stars.
Two of them - Bryn Terfel and Rebecca Evans - were at the palace to perform alongside the orchestra and chorus of WNO.
They sang for the 300 invited guests, which included many of the sponsors and benefactors who help to fund the organisation.
Prince Charles said he was "proud" to be patron of the opera company and said he knew "what a difference this remarkable company makes to Wales".
He told the audience he wanted to wish it "the happiest 70th anniversary".
Terfel sang some of his first roles with WNO when he performed for the company in the late 1980s.
Speaking to BBC Wales, he said: "If you delve into their historical background you will also see not only that the Welsh home-grown talent start there, but they created wings for other singers as well.
"And you need a stage to sing these operatic roles when you begin your career."
WNO is currently touring its new production In Parenthesis, based on the World War One poem by David Jones. It will be performed at the Royal Opera House in London on Friday.


MPs who want to sneakily edit their Wikipedia entry might want to think about doing it from their home PC.

That was the tongue-in-cheek advice from technologist and futurist Tom Scott, who gave MPs a masterclass in protecting their privacy.
The Houses of Parliament has just two IP addresses, the unique identification number which links net users to a location, he explained.
This means it is relatively easy to find out the source of edits.
"Wikipedia stores the IP address of anonymous users," Mr Scott told the MPs on Thursday at an Internet and Parliament conference.
"If you go on to Wikipedia and you try and edit without logging in, it stores your computer address."
He added: "All the traffic from the Houses of Parliament goes through two net routers.
"You can look through all Wikipedia's history at all the edits that have come from the Houses of Parliament."
That does not mean, he stressed, that it was possible to say for certain that it was MPs themselves who were editing the material, as it could be anybody with access to a computer hooked up to the Parliament network - such as members of staff or MP's assistants.
"It would be completely wrong to assume that because a Member of Parliament's Wikipedia page has been edited it's that MP doing it," he told the audience of internet experts and MPs in Portcullis House, to laughter.
MPs set a lot of store by the Wikipedia entries - particular at election time - as it is one of the main ways potential voters find out about them.
Some high profile political figures, or their members of staff, are in a constant war of attrition with vandals who post abusive or subversive "facts" on their Wikipedia pages.
Other MPs have been caught out trying to remove accurate, but potentially embarrassing, material from their entries.


Sam Burgess has been included in England's 31-man squad for the World Cup, which starts next month.

Rugby league convert Burgess only made his union debut for Bath in November and won his first England cap against France in August.
The 26-year-old's inclusion means there is no place for fellow centre Luther Burrell, a regular during the past two Six Nations campaigns.
Media playback is not supported on this device
Head coach Stuart Lancaster has also left out fly-half Danny Cipriani.
Cipriani's omission comes despite the 27-year-old Sale player putting in an impressive performance off the bench in the 25-20 defeat by France in Paris on Saturday, later tweeting he was "very disappointed" and had done "everything I could for the white shirt".
Exeter's Henry Slade, 22, is named as one of four centres alongside Burgess, Saracens' Brad Barritt and Jonathan Joseph of Bath, while Kieran Brookes is picked ahead of loose-head Alex Corbisiero, who has struggled with fitness recently.
Ben Morgan is named as one of the back rows, despite having played just 40 minutes of competitive rugby since suffering a broken leg and, in the second row, George Kruis has beaten Dave Attwood to a spot in the 31.
The other players to miss out are centre Billy Twelvetrees, number eight Nick Easter, flanker Calum Clark and hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie.
Head coach Lancaster, whose side begin their tournament against Fiji at Twickenham on 18 September, admitted to shedding tears over the selection of his squad.
He informed successful and unsuccessful players of his decisions in one-to-one meetings and when asked about the emotion of the talks, said: "Just by me. No tantrums, just tears."
He added "Selection wasn't easy and it is tough to leave anyone out but it's important to stress that the players not in this group are still part of our wider squad and could come in at any point.
"It's really positive that we have such depth and options to choose from.
"After 10 weeks in camp we have made our final selection of players and we believe we have a great group to take us into the tournament.
"With three weeks to go before we play Fiji we feel we are in good shape as we head into next Saturday's game against Ireland."
England backs coach Andy Farrell, who himself converted from rugby league to play in the 2007 World Cup with England, said of Burgess: "To force our hand to put him into the squad, he should be unbelievably proud of himself."
However, earlier this week, former England captain Will Carling said that Burgess should not be taken to the World Cup after frequently being caught out of position against France.
"There is no-one I have spoken to who I respect - ex-players, coaches - who thinks he's ready," said Carling, who won 72 caps for England and led them to the 1991 World Cup final.
"I don't understand what the rush is and it's unfair on him. I feel sorry for him. If he wants to make it in union, there's plenty of time.
"He's been playing union for 10 months and half of that was in a different position to what England are playing him in.
"I don't believe he's one of the four best centres in England."
When asked about the omission of Cipriani, who has been capped 14 times for England since making his debut in 2008, Lancaster explained he was edged out by specialist performers at both fly-half and full-back and rejected suggestions he had not had a chance to stake a claim.
"During training everyone has had plenty of opportunities to put their talent forward," he said.
"It's tough on Danny, he's a good player. We think he's improved but he's just lost out."
Cipriani accepted his non-selection, tweeting a long message that said he was grateful for the time he had been given to prove himself, emphasising the good communication he had enjoyed with the coaching staff.
While he understood the reasoning behind his exclusion, he added: "I would not be a true competitor if I said I agreed as we all believe in ourselves.
"But I had a long way to make up as the squad had been building since 2012... It's just the start of my journey. I am going to stay fit and be ready if I'm called upon."
He ended by urging everyone to support the squad. "Now that the call has been made let's just all get behind the team and back the 31."
Hookers: Jamie George (Saracens), Rob Webber (Bath), Tom Youngs (Leicester).
Props: Kieran Brookes (Northampton), Dan Cole (Leicester), Joe Marler (Harlequins), Mako Vunipola (Saracens), David Wilson (Bath).
Second rows: George Kruis (Saracens), Joe Launchbury (Wasps), Courtney Lawes (Northampton), Geoff Parling (Exeter).
Back rows: James Haskell (Wasps), Ben Morgan (Gloucester), Chris Robshaw (captain, Harlequins), Billy Vunipola (Saracens), Tom Wood (Northampton).
Scrum-halves: Danny Care (Harlequins), Richard Wigglesworth (Saracens), Ben Youngs (Leicester).
Fly-halves: Owen Farrell (Saracens), George Ford (Bath).
Centres: Brad Barritt (Saracens), Sam Burgess (Bath), Jonathan Joseph (Bath), Henry Slade (Exeter).
Back three: Mike Brown (Harlequins), Alex Goode (Saracens), Jonny May (Gloucester), Jack Nowell (Exeter), Anthony Watson (Bath).
BBC Radio 5 live's Rugby World Cup preview show takes place at the Twickenham Stoop on Thursday 17 September.
It is your chance to join Mark Chapman and a number of World Cup legends including former New Zealand fly-half Andrew Mehrtens, ex-Scotland captain Gavin Hastings, Wales scrum-half Rob Jones and former Ireland winger Denis Hickie amongst his guests.
Tickets are available on the 5 live website.


Ashya King's parents have been freed from a Spanish prison.

Brett and Naghemeh King were detained after taking five-year-old Ashya, who has a brain tumour, from a Southampton hospital against medical advice.
They were released after UK prosecutors withdrew a European arrest warrant, stating that they were happy any risk to Ashya's life "was not as great or immediate as... originally thought".
Ashya is being treated in a hospital in Malaga.
Speaking to reporters as the couple left Madrid's Soto Del Real prison, Mr King said: "We will go to see my son as soon as possible, we have been dying to see his face for so long."
It emerged on Wednesday that the Proton Therapy Center (PTC) in Prague has reviewed Ashya's medical documentation and says he can be treated there.
Police efforts to track down Ashya began after his parents took him from Southampton Hospital without doctors' consent in order to seek proton beam treatment abroad.
The PTC says Dr Gary Nicolin, consultant paediatric oncologist at Southampton Hospital, has said Ashya is first required to undergo two cycles of chemotherapy.
That is expected to take several weeks but afterwards he would be able to travel to Prague for proton therapy.
A Spanish judge ordered the parents' release on Tuesday after the Crown Prosecution Service said it had "urgently reviewed the case".
A CPS spokesman said: "We consider there is insufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction for any criminal offence."
At the scene: Tom Burridge, BBC News correspondent, Madrid
As they walked to the door of Soto del Real prison, Brett and Naghemeh King were greeted and hugged by two friends.
They then emerged from the prison, walking slowly, with a small suitcase and bag, towards a throng of cameras and waiting press.
"We're tired," Mr King told me. Yearning to see our son. We're completely relieved."
"Are you angry?", a Spanish journalist asked him. "No, not at all."
And his message for the British public, I asked him? "Thank you for all your support."
They said they just wanted to see their five-year-old son.
"We've been dying to see his face for so long now," he added.
Mr King seemed bewildered but relatively calm, given what he and his wife had been through over the past few days.
The Kings had spent more than 24 hours inside the jail. Once the Crown Prosecution Service decided to drop legal proceedings against them, it took roughly seven hours for them to be set free in Spain.
They were driven away on a long journey down to southern Spain, so they could be reunited with their seven children, including five-year-old Ashya, who is in a hospital in Malaga.
Daniel King, Ashya's older brother, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the family would travel to the hospital in Malaga to visit him later on Wednesday.
He said his parents were "really happy to be out and they just want to go and see Ashya as soon as possible; it was just one of these things that got way out of hand".
"We're just trying to get everything back to normal now he can have his family back with him."
Mr King, who had been allowed to visit his five-year-old brother while their parents were in jail, added: "Physically he is fine but emotionally he's very confused - but I hope that's all going to finish now."
Prime Minister David Cameron welcomed the move to drop the prosecution.
In a tweet, he said: "It's important this little boy gets treatment & the love of his family."
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has said a top cancer specialist will be flown out to Spain to advise Ashya's parents.
Mr Hunt said: "What we want to do is make sure that Ashya's family get the best independent advice.
"It's been a very unfortunate sequence of events and there have clearly been some misunderstandings along the way. What we want to focus on is getting the right treatment for Ashya."
Ashya was diagnosed with a medulloblastoma, a type of brain tumour, which was successfully removed by surgeons last month.
However, in order to help prevent its return, his parents wanted him to be given proton beam therapy - a treatment the NHS does not provide in the UK, although it does refer patients to other countries for treatment.
University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust has said Ashya's chances of recovery with regular treatment are "very good". It has said there would be "no benefit to him of proton radiotherapy over standard radiotherapy".
It was then "during unsupervised leave on the trust's grounds, Ashya's family chose to remove him without informing or seeking the consent of medical staff", the trust said.
"When Ashya went missing last week we had no option but to call the police because we did not know where he was or what his parents' intentions were," a spokesman said.
An internal inquiry into the case has begun at Southampton General Hospital, the BBC understands.
The prime minister's spokesman said the Home Office had been in discussions with Hampshire Constabulary about the force's handling of the investigation.
Hampshire Police commissioner Simon Hayes said the force had been correct to pursue the arrest warrant.
Mr Hayes said: "I'm confident with the evidence that I have that it was the right thing to do.
"Hampshire Constabulary were given information by Southampton General Hospital that said Ashya was in grave danger and he needed to be found for his life to be saved."


Britain's Georgie Hermitage broke her own world record on her way to winning gold in the T37 400m final at the IPC Athletics World Championships.

The 100m silver medallist started strongly and moved smoothly through the rest of the field in Doha.
Hermitage finished in one minute 2.01 seconds, beating the 1:02.48 she set in London in July.
The 26-year-old, who has cerebral palsy, left the sport as a teenager but returned after her daughter was born.
"This is more than I could ever dreamed of," she told BBC Sport.
"I never thought I would get a world record. Today was all about getting around and trying to win gold and make the point there is more in me."
Hermitage had set a world best of 1:02.48 at the IPC Grand Prix Final at the Anniversary Games in London in July.
Her training was then hampered by a foot problem but she showed no ill-effects in the Doha heat and, watched by daughter Tilly, stormed through to win Britain's sixth gold of the championships by over three and a half seconds from her nearest rival, France's Mandy Francois-Elie (1:05.55),
"I think I am trying to make up for lost time. I wasted quite a few years doing nothing and I wouldn't do it if it wasn't for Tilly," the Surrey athlete added.
"She is the fire in my belly. When I go out to train at night and I don't want to be there, I know it is days like this when it pays off and she will have these memories forever.
"She knows mummy goes running and this is what mummy does and it would be great in a few years' time, when she is in school, that she can say this is what mummy did and she was there.
"This has been a good season but I'm trying not to think too much about Rio. I just want to plough on and enjoy winter training.
"It is the ultimate goal but I don't dare look that far ahead, especially when my body is susceptible to injuries. But if it happens then it would be great."
Wheelchair racer Mo Jomni made the breakthrough at world level with a first medal in the T53 200m.
A product of the Weir Archer Academy, which was formed by six-time Paralympic champion David Weir and his coach Jenny Archer, the 26-year-old set a personal best of 26.78 in the heats and finished third behind Canada's Brent Lakatos and Pongsakorn Paeyo of Thailand.
"It's always about the finals - you have to concentrate on the heats and if you are lucky, you get through," he said. "The finals are where you have to put the work in. I always keep it realistic and results come through.
"I came around the bend and the Thai athletes were kicking it on so I had to push it on. I was squinting my eyes and just saying over to myself 'push push push'. To come third and get the medal is awesome, I'm really happy."
London 2012 gold medallist Richard Whitehead is better known for his prowess over 200m and the marathon but narrowly missed out on a medal in the T42 100m, finishing 0.08 outside bronze with a new personal best of 13.55 seconds.
"To be 39 years old and still holding my own against younger athletes is good, but I think it was a bit of a missed opportunity. Although my main task was to get to the final, there are a few athletes missing so it would have been a great opportunity to sneak a medal.
"It's important for me to have confidence going into the 200m, which starts on Tuesday, and hopefully I can continue to push in my main event."
Elsewhere, American leg amputee Richard Browne, who is now based in Cambridge, broke his own world record to claim his first world title in the T44 200m.
The 24-year-old looked impressive as he clocked 21.27 seconds, beating his previous best of 21.62 set last year, with Brazil's double amputee Alan Oliveira second in 22.04.


A US man has been convicted of posting cyanide to a suicidal man in England, leading to his death.

Sidney Kilmartin, 54, mailed a substance he said was cyanide - but which was actually Epsom salts - to several suicidal people, police said.
But he sent the real thing to 49-year-old Andrew Denton, of Hull, who used it to kill himself at his home in December 2012.
Prosecutors said Kilmartin wanted to stop Mr Denton reporting the fraud.
A federal jury found him guilty on Tuesday of mailing injurious articles resulting in death and witness tampering.
Kilmartin, formerly of Windham, Maine, had earlier pleaded guilty to mail fraud and wire fraud, but denied the more serious charges.
He was found not guilty of witness retaliation.
Kilmartin faces the possibility of life in prison.
The trial, which began on 3 October, heard Kilmartin would present himself to suicidal people as an "angel of mercy".
In his opening statement, Assistant US Attorney Halsey Frank, prosecuting, said: "Sidney Kilmartin targeted vulnerable people who were depressed to the point of suicide to take advantage of.
"When Andrew Denton had the audacity to complain that Mr Kilmartin had defrauded and taken advantage of him, Mr Kilmartin killed him."
A court affidavit said Kilmartin obtained the cyanide by posing as a jeweller to persuade a California distributor to ship him 100g of the chemical for $127.56.


Surrey wicketkeeper-batsman Ben Foakes has signed a new contract, which will keep him at The Oval until the end of the 2018 season.

The 22-year-old joined Surrey from Essex over the winter and helped the club win promotion to Division One of the County Championship.
He has been named in the England Lions squad for their winter tour of the UAE.
"Ben has had an excellent first season at Surrey," director of cricket Alec Stewart said.
"He thoroughly deserved his selection for the England Lions squad this winter.
"He has a huge role to play over the coming years and I'm confident that his talent and performances with us will see him play for England in the future."


Russia's Sputnik news site says its website has been blocked in Turkey.

Users trying to access the site are reportedly receiving a message saying it is inaccessible pending "technical checks and legal assessments".
The agency's Turkish staff said no warning had been received from telecoms authorities.
Relations between Moscow and Ankara have worsened since Turkey shot down a Russian warplane near the Syrian border five months ago.
The news comes hours after a series of anti-Turkish statements from Russian President Vladimir Putin in the course of his annual televised phone-in.
Sputnik was launched by Russian state media in 2014 to target a global audience "who want a different perspective".
"We've sent a letter to the regulatory agency asking for the reasons,"  editor-in-chief Mahir Boztepe told Reuters news agency. "We were not expecting a ban at all."
Controversial legislation introduced in 2014 gave Turkish authorities the power to block websites for privacy violations without a court decision.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been accused of presiding over an increasingly authoritarian administration.
Last month Turkey's biggest newspaper, Zaman, was taken over by the authorities after a court ruling placed it under state control. No explanation was given for the ruling.
Press freedom 'a major concern'


Syrian rebel fighters have agreed to leave their last enclave in the city of Homs, government officials say.

Homs Governor Talal Barrazi said the evacuation of al-Wair was part of an existing deal with community leaders and would take six to eight weeks.
Opposition activists said the rebels would be allowed to depart with their families for rebel-held northern Syria.
Al-Wair, home to an estimated 75,000 people, has been under siege by government forces since late 2013.
Homs was dubbed the "capital of the revolution" after residents embraced the call to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad in 2011 and drove security forces out of much of the city the following year.
That prompted the government to begin a brutal two-year siege that left whole areas destroyed and eventually forced rebels to withdraw from the Old City in 2014.
Al-Wair, on the western outskirts, is the last rebel-held district.
In December 2015, community leaders agreed a five-stage truce with the government.
The first phase led to 300 rebels leaving and the government allowing in a limited amount of food and humanitarian aid. But the deal subsequently stalled.
The second phase did not take place until September, when several hundred more rebels were evacuated and the government freed 200 imprisoned al-Wair residents.
The next two phases will see about 10,000 to 15,000 people leaving in several groups over the coming weeks, opposition activists from the Homs Media Centre told Reuters news agency.
The pro-opposition Orient News website reported that the rebels planned to head to Jarablus, a town near the border with Turkey that was captured from so-called Islamic State last August.
In a separate development on Monday, several rebel factions said they were not yet ready to send a delegation to attend talks with the government that are scheduled to begin in Kazakhstan on Tuesday.
Ahmed Othman of the Sultan Murad brigade told Reuters that one of the reasons for the boycott was unfulfilled promises relating to a cessation of hostilities agreement brokered by Russia and Turkey at the end of December.
Mr Othman complained that Russia, an ally of President Bashar al-Assad, had failed to halt the government's bombardment of rebel-held areas.


A 15-year-old boy who murdered his mother with a hammer and set her body on fire has been detained for a minimum of 16 years.

Daniel Bartlam had denied murder but admitted the manslaughter of his mother, Jacqueline Bartlam, following a row at their Nottinghamshire home.
Nottingham Crown Court was told she had been beaten seven times with a claw hammer, fracturing her face and skull.
A soap opera murder plot and violent TV clips were found on Daniel's computer.
Reporting restrictions preventing identification of the teenager were lifted by the court following his sentencing.
Mrs Bartlam, 47, was discovered by fire crews at her home in Georgia Drive, Redhill, Nottinghamshire, in the early hours of 25 April 2011.
After being beaten, her body was then padded with paper, covered in petrol and set on fire, the court heard.
Daniel, who was 14 at the time of the killing, told police an intruder had killed his mother but detectives found a written "soap opera plot" on his computer in which he fantasised about his character carrying out a killing.
The court heard he had been particularly interested in a Coronation Street storyline involving the character John Stape.
In the soap, Stape had murdered a woman with a hammer and then left her body in the wreckage of a tram crash.
It was also revealed Daniel had been watching violent horror films since he was eight and had viewed the film Saw hours before killing his mother.
The teenager claimed he had been provoked into violence when his mother called him "a freak" during their argument.
He was found guilty of murder at Nottingham Crown Court on 9 February.
The jury heard authorities raised concerns about the boy's behaviour in the months before the attack.
He told a counsellor voices were telling him to hurt people and that he had had visions of killing people, the court was told.
However, several experts had concluded Daniel was not mentally ill and did not pose a risk.
Judge Julian Flaux described the killing as "grotesque" and "senseless" and said it seemed like the teenager wanted to "get away with the perfect murder".
Det Ch Insp Kate Meynell, who led the murder inquiry, said after sentencing: "The level of violence, degree of planning and extent of his lies is not only shocking, but it is also chilling that a boy of 14 could do this.
"You can only imagine the impact that this has had on Jacqueline's family, and having spent time with them throughout the investigation and subsequent legal proceedings, I know this is going to be very difficult, if not impossible, for them to come to terms with.
"This murder has devastated everyone involved. There is only one person who knows why it happened, and Daniel has lied consistently throughout, making attempts to besmirch Jacqueline's character.
"Everyone who knew her knew she lived for her children and was a warm, loving mother.
"Maybe one day Daniel will tell the truth, as there are several gaps that only he can fill."
A statement issued on behalf of the family said: "We find it so hard to explain what we are going through.
"There are no winners here because not only have we lost Jacqui, but we have lost Daniel too because of what he's done.
"We know it was the right result at court, but trying to understand how a boy you have loved for 14 years can do something like this is so difficult.
"To find out that Daniel planned to kill his own mother and then hear all the details, it is all so hard to believe.
"The most difficult part for us and something that only Daniel can answer is 'why?'"


Police are being asked to explain how a convicted criminal was able to escape from police custody and allegedly commit a series of offences after being arrested and handcuffed.

Christopher Kearns, 23, was eventually detained and sent to Maghaberry prison eight days after his escape last month.
The PSNI said the incident in west Belfast was being investigated.
Sinn FÃ©in has described what happened as "ridiculous", and said the police have serious questions to answer.
West Belfast MLA and former policing board member Alex Maskey wants to meet local PSNI commanders.
"This is a matter of concern to people in the area," he said.
"People are scratching their heads as to how this person was arrested in his home, handcuffed, but still managed to make good his escape.
"The police have a lot of questions to answer here as to how they allowed what really is, unfortunately, a debacle.
"It's not good for policing, it's certainly not good for the community and people will be rightfully expecting serious answers from the PSNI as to how it allowed this ridiculous situation to develop."
Christopher Kearns was released from prison earlier this year after serving half of a three-year sentence for offences linked to an incident involving a former partner.
He was sentenced last June, with half the term to be served in prison and the other 18 months on licence.
Due to time spent in prison on remand waiting for his trial, he was released on licence after eight months, on 11 February.
Just five months later, on 11 July, the Department of Justice decided to revoke his licence.
It did so after receiving a report which said he had breached the strict conditions attached to his release.
The PSNI was informed that Christopher Kearns should be arrested and returned to Maghaberry prison as soon as possible.
He was arrested at his home in Arundel Walk in the Grosvenor Road area of west Belfast later that day.
But shortly after being handcuffed, he ran off.
Officers chased him on foot but could not catch him and he escaped.
Police then issued his name and description to all patrols in Belfast and asked them to arrest him on sight.
Sinn FÃ©in said police should also have issued an appeal to the public for help in locating him.
"The community should have been made aware that this person was at large," said Mr Maskey.
"It may well have been embarrassing for the PSNI to acknowledge that, but far better to have been embarrassed but let the public help to apprehend this person again than to let the thing run."
Six days after Christopher Kearns was arrested and escaped, police officers responded to the sighting of a scrambler motorbike being driven erratically in west Belfast.
When the driver fell off and injured himself, he was arrested. The police established that the man they had in custody was Christopher Kearns. The handcuffs had been removed.
After being treated in hospital for his injuries, he was returned to Maghaberry prison on 26 July.
In a statement to the BBC, the PSNI said: "Police often make arrests in challenging and dynamic circumstances and an investigation into this matter is currently under way."
Christopher Kearns is now expected to serve the remaining 18 months of his sentence in prison.
He is also facing a series of other charges. It is understood police are preparing a file for the Public Prosecution Service on a range of offences, including resisting police.
An offender released on licence can be returned to prison to serve the remainder of their sentence if they breach the conditions of that licence.
Depending on the nature of the offences committed, the conditions can include a stipulation on where the offender lives, a curfew requiring them to remain indoors between specified hours, a driving ban, and other restrictions.
Due to time spent on prison on remand waiting for his trial, Christopher Kearns was released on licence after eight months.
Like others released on licence, he was under the supervision of the Probation Board.
The decision by the Department of Justice on 11 July to revoke his licence and send him back to prison was taken after the Probation Board sent a so-called Licence Recall Report to the parole commissioners.
The board does this if it believes an offender has failed to comply with the conditions of their licence, or poses a risk to the public.
The parole commissioners considered the report and sent a recommendation to the DoJ, which makes the final decision on whether an offender's licence should be revoked.
The probation board and parole commissioners both told the BBC they could not comment on an individual case.
However, it is clear that they both believed Christopher Kearns had breached the terms of his licence, and the Department of Justice agreed.


Defending champion Stan Wawrinka beat Viktor Troicki in four sets to reach the last eight of the French Open.

The Swiss third seed won 7-6 (7-5) 6-7 (7-9) 6-3 6-2 and will face Spain's Albert Ramos-Vinolas, who knocked out eighth seed Milos Raonic 6-2 6-4 6-4.
France's ninth seed Richard Gasquet meets Andy Murray after a 6-4 6-2 4-6 6-2 win over fifth seed Kei Nishikori.
Women's fourth seed Garbine Muguruza progressed with a 6-3 6-4 win against 2009 champion Svetlana Kuznetsova.
The 22-year-old Spaniard will face American Shelby Rogers next.
Wawrinka, 31, remains on course to meet second seed Murray in the semi-finals after his eighth successive win on clay.
The two-time Grand Slam champion enjoyed himself on Court Philippe Chatrier, taking part in a mid-match rally with a ball boy and then twirling 360 degrees on court after beating 22nd seed Troicki to take a selfie-video with the 10,000 crowd.
Troicki, 30, pushed his opponent hard in the first two sets, but faded in the third as he struggled with a hip injury.
As the Serbian had treatment, Wawrinka used the break to entertain the crowd.
"I asked the ball boy if he played tennis and I thought, 'why don't we go and hit a few balls'. He wasn't afraid to be on centre court," said Wawrinka.
"We had a little chat. He was a nice kid. It was nice for him. It was fun for the audience. I was a little bit bored waiting for Troicki so it kept me busy."
After French number one Jo-Wilfried Tsonga pulled out through injury on Saturday, Gasquet was the home crowd's last remaining hope in the singles draw.
The 29-year-old had never previously progressed beyond the fourth round at Roland Garros, but eased past Nishikori in a rain-delayed match on Chatrier.
Nishikori led 4-2 in the opening set when play was stopped, only for Gasquet - using his superb single-handed backhand to devastating effect - to battle back after the restart.
"I was fired up at the restart, I knew I had to match his tempo if I did not want to lose in three sets," said Gasquet.
Shelby Rogers, ranked 108th in the world, reached her first Grand Slam quarter-final by beating Romanian 24th seed Irina-Camelia Begu 6-3 6-4.
"It's incredible and I'm really happy that it didn't start raining," said Rogers, who broke down in tears after the match.
"I always dreamed of this when I was a little girl in Charleston but never really thought I would reach the quarter-finals in Paris."
Rogers, 23, has now beaten three seeds in her run at Roland Garros having seen off 17th seed Karolina Pliskova in the first round and 10th seed Petra Kvitova in the last 32.
The 28-year-old Ramos-Vinolas, who has never been past the second round in 18 appearances in the four majors, broke Raonic five times and only lost serve once.
"I have no words to explain how I feel," said the world number 55. "It was four years in a row losing in the first round."
Raonic was watched by seven-time Grand Slam champion John McEnroe, who is joining the 25-year-old Canadian's team ahead of Wimbledon next month.
But the world number nine, who already employs 1998 French Open champion Carlos Moya and Riccardo Piatti as full-time coaches, insists he will have the final say on his future direction.
"I'm the CEO of the Milos Raonic Tennis," he said.
"Every coach I have is to some extent an advisor. I take everybody's consultations very personally. I know everybody I have around me wants to help me to the fullest.
"I was sort of just looking for another set of eyes to be a bit more efficient on grass. I'm sure John will have some quality advice to give."


As the 40ft (12m) drill rattles down through the red dirt, miner Craig Stutley makes a statement that sounds a lot like what he said 30 minutes ago.

"This is the hole," says the 45-year-old.
Mr Stutley's mining partner, Richard Saunders, who seems eternally caked in dusty soil, mumbles in agreement.
The two men are stood in the middle of the sun-bleached South Australian outback, hunting for opals, the rare gemstones that can sparkle with a rainbow of different colours.
They sift through the earth that the test drill pulls up, searching for signs of opals that could potentially make them a fortune.
With the largest, best-quality Australian opals worth more than Â£600,000 thanks to soaring demand from jewellers around the world, there is vast amounts of money to be - potentially - made.
The trouble is that opals are so scarce. Even in designated opal fields, you need luck, and months, or even years, of patience to find them.
"Half of it is in your head," says Mr Stutley. "You have to think positive, otherwise you wouldn't come to work."
Mr Stutley and Mr Saunders are mining a patch of land 15 miles north of the South Australian town of Coober Pedy, which is known as "the opal capital of the world".
South Australia supplies 80% of the world's opals, and the industry is centred on Coober Pedy, a town of around 3,500 people located 850 miles (1,368km) north of Adelaide, and 430 miles south of Alice Springs.
At the peak of the opal rush 40 years ago there were thousands of miners based in the town that can see summer temperatures top 47C (117F), but as finds have steadily fallen ever since, today there are just dozens.
There is, however, still considerable amounts of money to be made, with state-wide opal output totalling 15.1m Australian dollars ($11.5m; Â£9m) last year, according to the South Australian government.
This comes as the global prices of opals have doubled in the past few years, thanks to constant demand from India and China, as well as an opal renaissance in western markets such as the US.
While Mr Stutley and Mr Saunders are still waiting for their big find, they did at least have some recent luck, when in March they won a free lottery to mine a newly reopened opal field.
The pair, along with about 50 other miners, were chosen at random to restart mining in Shell Patch Reserve, an area that had been off limits for 40 years due to its importance to local Aboriginal people. More than 200 people had entered the lottery, and the winners got plots or "claims" of land that measure 100m by 50m (328ft by 164ft).
John Dunstan, the vice president of Australia's Opal Mining Association, was one of the first to get to work at Shell Patch.
He has already received a small payday after finding a piece (known in the industry as a "parcel") of opal worth about 5,900 Australian dollars.
Rather than tunnelling into the ground, Mr Dunstan is open-cut mining, which involves scraping away a few inches of rock with an excavator, and then periodically investigating for opals.
He hopes that a big find at Shell Patch will attract new entrants into the industry.
"There hasn't been a major strike [in Coober Pedy] for quite a few years," says Mr Dunstan.
"We are desperate to find a new opal field and hopefully attract some new opal miners."
He adds that there's a saying in Coober Pedy that often rings true - the moment you find your first opal you catch "opal fever".
Its symptom is a relentless pursuit of opal, which is Australia's national gemstone.
For Mr Dunstan that moment happened at age 14 back in 1965 when he found his first opal.
"It's a lifestyle for me," he says. "It's a passion."
Justin Lang, 27, is one of the new miners that Mr Dunstan wants to see. He and his business partner, Daniel Becker, 43, started opal mining five years ago.
Mr Becker says they approach it as "a hobby that makes you money".
About one week a month they leave the shops where they work in the town of Hahndorf, near Adelaide, and head to Coober Pedy, where they mine several different fields.
Mr Lang says: "The possibility of finding millions and millions of dollars is real."
He adds that he is also drawn to opal mining because it favours small operators, unlike the multi-million dollar companies that mine Australia for copper and uranium.
Finding opal is "just too irregular" for big business, says Mr Lang.
For Mr Lang and his fellow miners, it also doesn't hurt that opals are back in vogue, and quite literally in Vogue.
Earlier this year the magazine profiled young jewellery designers who are making "opal cool again" after years with a reputation as either an antique that grandma wore, or as tacky jewellery that tourists would buy from Australian airports.
In another boost to opal's comeback, Dior's latest jewellery collection is centred on the gemstone.
"Every opal is completely different," says Emily Amey, a New York-based jewellery designer who sources many of her opals from Australia. "Different colours, different patterns, they are just mystical."
While Ethiopia is now extracting about half the amount of opals that South Australia produces - other nations with sources of opals include Brazil and Peru - Australia is not going to lose its number one crown anytime soon.
Australian miners such as Mr Dunstan just seemingly need a mixture of blind positivity, patience and luck to find the gemstones.
"There are still millions of dollars here to be found," he says. "You've just got to be digging in the right spot."


Britons who can defend the nation's networks armed only with a keyboard are being sought in a national competition.

Now in its second year, the Cyber Security Challenge aims to uncover the UK's future cyber warriors.
Via a series of online and face-to-face challenges entrants are asked to thwart hack attacks, defend networks and track down criminals.
Prizes for the winners include training courses and cash to help them pursue a career in computer security.
The competition was set up to address the looming shortfall in cyber security workers that the UK is facing.
From 1 June, anyone interested in entering the competition can register via the website in preparation for the series of challenges that will run over the next 12 months.
The challenge is arranged around three streams which test the skills established computer security experts call on in their day-to-day work.
Entrants can take challenges dealing with how to design secure networks, digital forensics and cyber defence. This year one-off quizzes are being offered alongside the on-going competitions so those in full-time employment have more of a chance to take part.
Each stream will have up to three competitions and the winners of these will go through to an elimination round. Those that triumph in the eliminators will compete for the chance to be grand champion.
The elimination rounds involve live challenges such as defending a network against incoming attacks.
Dan Summers, a postman from Wakefield, was the winner of the first UK Cyber Security Challenge and took home prizes worth ??6,000.


Germany and Argentina will contest the 2014 Fifa World Cup final on Sunday in front of an expected television audience of more than a billion.

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Germany would be the first European team to win the tournament in South America if they take the title for the first time since 1990.
If Argentina triumph it would end a 28-year wait for World Cup glory since they beat West Germany in 1986.
The game, a 20:00 BST kick-off at Rio's Maracana, is a 79,000 sellout.
There will be live uninterrupted coverage on BBC One and the BBC Sport website from 19:00 BST, while there is also live commentary on BBC Radio 5 live.
Germany, seeking a fourth World Cup, crushed hosts Brazil 7-1 in the semi-finals, while two-time winners Argentina beat Netherlands 4-2 on penalties after a 0-0 draw.
Rio is preparing what local authorities claim to be the "largest security operation in the city's history", with more than 25,000 people involved, including local agents, military police, civil police, firefighters, the armed forces and intelligence agents.
The authorities say terrorism, clashes between fans, the presence of at least 15 members of foreign governments and the security of Brazil President Dilma Rousseff are the main areas of concern.
Argentina goalkeeper Sergio Romero, who has not conceded a goal in the knockout phase and was the hero of the win against Netherlands, said: "The most important thing is that our team and our country provide the best image in the eyes of the world, that the world will speak well of Argentina.
"We will remember what the champions of 1978 and 1986 achieved but we will also try to achieve glory by the fight and heart of this team. Maybe for many people it is not the dream final because they wanted to play Brazil, but it will be a fantastic game."
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Germany midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger said: "There is huge anticipation here and in Germany. We have no pressure. We know how to handle things. We just have to concentrate on our jobs and what makes us strong. We have to be calm and have clear heads focused on the football."
The Germans will be playing in their eighth World Cup final, more than any other nation, but have won only one of their past four finals.
Sunday's game is the climax of a World Cup that is being regarded as a huge success in Brazil, with fears of widespread public protests similar to those that marred last summer's Confederations Cup proving unfounded.
According to local sources, 692,000 tourists from 203 countries have entered Brazil during the month in which the World Cup has been staged.
Brazil's hopes of winning the World Cup for the first time since 2002, when they beat Germany in Japan, were wrecked by those same opponents - but supporters still packed the Fanfest on Copacabana beach on Saturday to watch the hosts' 3-0 defeat by Netherlands in the third-place play-off.
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Argentina fans were also flooding the area ahead of Sunday's final, hoping their team can win the World Cup deep in the heart of sporting enemy territory in the iconic surroundings of the Maracana.
The tournament has been notable for its attacking football, and if the final features two goals, this will be the highest-scoring World Cup, beating the 171 goals in 1998.
But there has been controversy, too, with Uruguay striker Luis Suarez banned from all football-related activity for four months for biting Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini during a group game.
It has also seen the introduction of innovations such as goalline technology,cooling breaks during games played in searing temperatures and vanishing spray applied to the turf by referees to ensure defensive walls are back the statutory 10 yards at free-kicks.
And television viewing figures are expected to top those for the 2010 final between the Netherlands and Spain in Johannesburg, with Fifa research - which took a year to produce after the tournament - revealing 909.6 million viewers tuned in to at least one minute of the game.
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The opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics was watched by an estimated 900 million people, while this year's Super Bowl was viewed by an estimated 167 million worldwide.
There will be 2,500 accredited media inside the Maracana - and German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Joachim Gauck will be in Brazil.
Merkel told German broadcaster ZDF: "It certainly won't be easy. After the 7-1 against Brazil everybody thinks it's almost done. This is why we all need to cross our fingers."
Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner is not expected to attend the game as she has had throat trouble.
The match will be refereed by Italian Nicola Rizzoli.


A valuable bronze sculpture by Henry Moore has been stolen from a park in south west Scotland.

Standing Figure was one of four pieces by Moore at the Glenkiln Sculpture Park in Lincluden Estate near Shawhead.
Police Scotland said the sculpture was of "high value" and have appealed for witnesses to contact them.
Standing Figure is among a string of works by the abstract artist, who died in 1986 aged 88, to be targeted by thieves in recent years.
Last November, a Henry Moore sculpture worth up to Â£500,000 was taken from the Henry Moore Foundation at Much Hadham, Hertfordshire.
Two men later admitted stealing The Sundial sculpture, which they then sold for Â£46.
The Glenkiln sculpture park was created by local landowner Sir William Keswick between 1951 and 1976.
Sir William bought Standing Figure after seeing it in an exhibition, and Moore was personally "thrilled" with the artwork's open air location.
Moore said of the project: "I don't know whether he got the idea to put sculpture on his sheep farm after he saw the Battersea Park open-air exhibition, or whether he was inspired by his experiences in China, where he had lived for many years, and where, he said, there are many examples of monumental sculptures in the open air.
"In any case, he bought this piece to put on his farm in Scotland. He placed the sculpture himself on an existing outcrop of rock.
"Later I went up there and was thrilled with the beautiful landscape and at how well he had sited 'Yon Figure'."


Scientists have found live specimens of the rare giant shipworm for the first time, in the Philippines.

Details of the creature, which can reach up to 1.55m (5ft) in length and 6cm (2.3in) in diameter, were published in a US science journal.
The giant shipworm spends its life encased in a hard shell, submerged head-down in mud.
Though its existence has been known for years, no living specimen had been studied until now.
Despite its name, the giant shipworm is actually a bivalve - the same group as clams and mussels.
The "rare and enigmatic species", also known as Kuphus polythamia, is the longest living bivalve known to man, according to the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS).
The strange shells have been found for centuries, because they are "very sturdy and they last a long time," said Daniel Distel, the report's chief author. "But we've never known where to find them."
The discovery came about by chance, when Dr Distel's team was working in the Philippines with local scientists.
"One of our students came in and said, 'hey, look at this' - he'd found this really great video on YouTube," Dr Distel said.
"We searched the literature and the scientific sources for years, and then we find it on YouTube. It's the miracle of social media."
That led a team of scientists from the US, the Philippines and France to find and collect five giant shipworms in Mindanao in a marine bay.
For Dr Distel, who works at Ocean Genome Legacy - a research group and "gene bank", storing the genetic material of rare ocean creatures - it was a major find.
But the scientists are keeping the exact location secret.
The giant shipworms were once found all over the globe, but the team does not know how many are left. On top of that, the outside tubes "fetch a pretty good price" among shell collectors, so the researchers are being careful.
A video shows the scientists cutting off one end of a shipworm's shell, before gently shaking it out. A long, slimy black creature is seen sliding out of the tube-like shell.
"It was like opening a soft-boiled egg - I just tapped on it very, very lightly with a chisel, made a circle, and the shell came off, just like an egg," Dr Distel said.
"It feels a lot like it looks - it's kind of slimy, but it wasn't objectionable, it didn't smell bad."
The team was, however, surprised by its jet-black colour - most bivalves are light cream colours. It is also extremely muscular - or "beefy" - despite the fact that it lives its life in a shell.
Previously, the best information they had was based off drawings of a poorly-preserved dead specimen from the 1960s.
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The creature belongs to the shipworm family, whose members are usually much smaller. They burrow into and feed on rotting wood.
The giant shipworm is unique not just for its size, but also for feeding on nutrients in mud and marine sediment instead, using a type of bacteria.
It therefore has a much smaller digestive system compared to other shipworms.
And while the discovery of the animal itself is exciting, the team's research has revealed there is an entire hidden ecosystem at play.
The giant shipworm has bacteria that live inside its shell, converting chemicals from the nearby rotting wood into energy and nutrients, similar to what plants do with sunlight.
That, Dr Distel said, will be a big part of their future research on these rare specimens.


The provincial government in Quebec is to invest $1bn US dollars (Â£655m) in Bombardier's troubled CSeries jet.

The narrow-bodied passenger plane's development has placed a major strain on Bombardier's finances.
Bombardier is based in Canada, but it is Northern Ireland's largest manufacturing employer.
The Quebec government will hold a 49.5% stake in a limited partnership set up to complete the CSeries programme.
The wings for the CSeries are made at Bombardier's Belfast plant.
Bombardier has also confirmed it is cancelling the development of its Learjet 85 business jet.
Earlier this year, it suspended the Learjet 85 programme due to a lack of demand for the plane.
Wing components for the jet are also made in Northern Ireland, but Bombardier says the cancellation will have no impact on jobs in Belfast.
The company reported a quarterly loss of $4.6bn, largely due to writing down the value of its investments in CSeries and Learjet 85.
Alain Bellemare, chief executive of Bombardier, said the deal with the Quebec government comes at a "pivotal time" for the CSeries.
"The market is there, our leadership is in place, we have the best product and with the support of the government, we are ready to make this aircraft a commercial success."
Quebec said its investment will come from the economic development fund that is managed by Investissement QuÃ©bec, a financing corporation set up to attract investment to the province.
The government will receive 200m stock warrants for its investment.
Each warrant will entitle it to buy a class B share in Bombardier at a price of C$2.21 per share within a five-year period.
Davy Thompson of the union Unite said the Quebec government's intervention was a lesson for politicians in Northern Ireland in how "government action can safeguard employment and support the manufacturing sector.
"We are hopeful that this investment by the Quebec government will give Bombardier breathing space to achieve its sales targets for the CSeries, will safeguard the long-term employment of the workforce here and the wider economic benefit from such high value jobs," he said.


A mass vaccination programme against meningitis A in Africa has been a "stunning success", say experts.

More than 220 million people were immunised across 16 countries in the continent's meningitis belt.
In 2013 there were just four cases across the entire region, which once faced thousands of deaths each year.
However, there are fresh warnings from the World Health Organization that "huge epidemics" could return unless a new vaccination programme is started.
The meningitis belt stretches across sub-Saharan Africa from Gambia in the west to Ethiopia in the east.
In the worst epidemic recorded, in 1996-97, the disease swept across the belt infecting more than a quarter of a million people and led to 25,000 deaths.
Unlike other vaccines, the MenAfriVac was designed specifically for Africa and in 2010 a mass vaccination campaign was started.
Laboratory-confirmed cases of meningitis A have been falling ever since:
"The disease has virtually disappeared from this part of the world," said Dr Marie-Pierre Preziosi from the World Health Organization.
The mass immunisation programme was aimed at people under 30.
However, routine vaccination will be needed to ensure that newborns are not vulnerable to the disease.
Projections, published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, showed the disease could easily return.
Dr Preziosi told the BBC News website: "What could happen is a huge epidemic that could sweep the entire area, that could target hundreds of thousands of people with 5-10% deaths at least.
"There will be major epidemics in 10 to 15 years, so the call to countries now is, 'Do not stop your efforts - you need to introduce the vaccine into routine immunisation programmes.'"
A new vaccine has been approved for children between nine and 18 months old. Ghana is introducing the jab and eight more countries are lining up to do so next year.
Dr Mark Alderson, from the global non-profit healthcare organisation Path, told the BBC: "It is a remarkable success story."
However, he warned other types of meningitis - C, Y, W and X - were also a threat.
He added: "Outbreaks of other sera groups are unpredictable and meningitis C is Niger is a case in point.
"If meningitis A is gone there will continue to be outbreaks in the other sera groups. If we really want to eliminate meningitis from the meningitis belt then the best way is to introduce a polyvalent vaccine [against A, C, Y, W and X]."
Meningitis A strikes in the the dry season in Africa and while it starts like a cold with headache and fever it can soon lead to convulsions, coma and death.
Follow James on Twitter.


At least eight people have been killed after a "technical problem" caused a bomb to fall from an Iraqi military plane over Baghdad.

The Iraqi air force say the Russian-made Sukhoi jet was returning from a bombing raid against Islamic State (IS) militants.
The pilot made six attempts to dislodge the bomb after it became stuck during the attack, according to the military.
It then fell as the plane overflew the capital, destroying several houses.
"One of the bombs became stuck because of a technical problem, and during its [the aircraft's] return to base it fell on... houses in Baghdad Jadida," security spokesman Brigadier General Saad Maan told the Associated Press news agency.
The agency also reports that at least three children are among the dead.
Iraqi forces, backed by a US-led airstrikes, have been fighting IS militants who control much of the west and north of the country.


A man has been arrested on suspicion of murder over the apparent one-punch killing of a man in Manchester.

Police said Michael Carter from Salford was involved in a row about football with two men on King Street West and was hit once in the face.
The 49-year-old hit his head on the pavement during the attack on 31 August, and died in hospital on 10 September.
A 20-year-old man from Urmston is being questioned on suspicion of murder
A second man, aged 19 and from Stretford, was arrested on suspicion of affray.
A post-mortem examination concluded that Mr Carter died from a head injury.


Shares in Samsung Electronics have hit a record high after activist investor Elliott Management proposed a radical corporate shake-up.

The US hedge fund is urging the tech giant to streamline its business, which makes consumer electronics including smartphones and televisions.
It believes the restructure would put the world's largest smartphone maker on equal footing with its global rivals.
The news pushed up Samsung's shares by as much as 5% to a new record.
In a letter made public this week, the activist hedge fund said that the "unnecessarily complex" structure of the Samsung Group empire was weighing on the shares of Samsung Electronics.
Samsung Electronics is part of a conglomerate controlled by the Lee family, which also owns stakes in the real estate, insurance and fashion industry in South Korea.
It has been hailed the crown jewel of business, but it is caught up in the Samsung web.
Elliott Management is proposing to pull out Samsung Electronics from the labyrinth and relist it. The new Samsung Electronics operating business would be listed in New York and Seoul.
Elliott also wants the company to pay shareholders about 30 trillion Korean won ($27bn; Â£20.6bn) in special dividends and add three independent directors to the board.
Affiliates of the New York-based hedge fund own nearly two-thirds of Samsung Electronics.
The proposal came as the tech giant faced fresh claims of problems with its flagship Galaxy Note 7 smartphone, following a report that a handset started emitting smoke inside a US plane on Wednesday.
The impact of Samsung's recall of 2.5 million devices is set to show up in modest earnings growth guidance expected on Friday.
In a statement, Samsung said it would "carefully review" the proposals by Elliott, even though attempts by the hedge fund to bring about change in the company ended badly last year.
But investors and analysts believe Elliott's latest attempt could pave the way for the Lee family to embrace change.
"A lot of foreign investors in Samsung believe that the company is undervalued," said Andrew Milroy from the Singapore based consultancy firm, Frost and Sullivan.
"They believe that its complex corporate structure is responsible for this."
"Many of these investors want to simplify Samsung's corporate structure and improve governance in order to increase the value of the firm," Mr Milroy told the BBC.
"This came at the right time for Samsung," said Daishin Economic Research Institute analyst Ahn Sang-hee.
"It's as if someone came and hit their cheek just when they wanted to cry. In Samsung Group's case, they have probably wanted to say something like this and now a foreign stakeholder has spoken up."
The future of Samsung, including its succession plans, has been under intense scrutiny since the group's patriarch, 74-year-old Lee Kun-hee, was incapacitated by a heart attack in May 2014.


Organisers of this year's Wales Rally GB say support from fans has been "unprecedented" after switching to north and mid Wales.

The event was so successful officials had to limit access to the Rallyfest stage at Kinmel Park following issues at Chirk Castle on Saturday.
World champion Sebastien Ogier kept his lead to clinch victory at the finish line in Llandudno on Sunday.
Elfyn Evans from Dolgellau won the WRC2 class, saying: "It feels great".
"We're thrilled with the response and interest in this year's new-look Wales Rally GB," said Andrew Coe, chief executive of the event organisers, International Motor Sports.
"Moving the event to north Wales has proved a huge success and we're seeing unprecedented spectator numbers lining the forests and roads of every stage."
However, he said it led to some fans being unable to get access to the Chirk Castle stage on Saturday.
"We're aware that many of these were existing ticket holders and for that we apologise," added Mr Coe.
"The venue's car parks simply reached capacity and with the nature of a rally taking place in largely remote areas there was simply no alternative."
This year's rally saw the race headquarters move from Cardiff to Flintshire, to a purpose-built Â£250,000 site at Queensferry.
The organisers hoped the move would attract new fans to the event from nearby cities in England, such as Liverpool and Manchester.
Welsh driver Elfyn Evans from Dolgellau stormed clear to win the WRC2 class race.
Speaking after crossing the finish line, the 24-year-old son of Welsh rallying legend Gwyndaf Evans said: "It feels great ... a fantastic car and great experience.
"I don't know about next year yet. We've had a few disappointments but the team has worked hard."


A man accused of carrying out an acid attack in Cornwall has denied carrying out the assault.

Businessman Andreas Christopheros, 29, was critically injured in the attack on his doorstep last December in Truro.
He suffered severe facial wounds and damage to his sight.
At Truro Crown Court, David Phillips, 48, from Hastings, East Sussex, denied causing grievous bodily harm with intent and is expected to go on trial on 8 June.


Now, it wasn't the first or the most used smartphone, but it's the iPhone's 10th birthday today.

29 June 2017 Last updated at 14:38 BST
Loads has changed since it came out.
So what's coming next? Jenny's been looking into the future...


Heavy traffic is expected in and around Fort William over the weekend as thousands of spectators arrive for a major cycling event.

The Fort William Mountain Bike World Cup and Buff 4X Pro Tour takes place at Nevis Range on Aonach Mor on Saturday and Sunday.
More than 250 riders and 20,000 spectators are expected in the area over the two days.
Police said people should be prepared for delays on the A82.
Traffic Scotland has also been warning motorists to expect heavy traffic on the trunk road.
Ch Insp Bob Mackay, of Police Scotland, said: "We're pleased to be supporting the event this weekend but would advise the public to allow extra time for journeys as we are expecting the area to be busy with increased traffic.
"People attending the event should follow the travel advice of the event organisers and use the park and ride facilities in Fort William as there is no vehicular access or parking at the event.
"We will be policing the event and surrounding area and ask that vehicles are parked sensibly as illegally or inconsiderately parked vehicles will be removed if necessary.
"This is to ensure access remains for the event and that the local community and users of the A82 public road between Spean Bridge and Fort William are not unnecessarily inconvenienced."


Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has questioned Luke Shaw's commitment to the Old Trafford club.

Media playback is not supported on this device
The 21-year-old defender has only played 15 times for the Reds this season and has not figured since last month's 1-1 draw against Bournemouth.
And Mourinho claims he compares unfavourably to fellow defenders Ashley Young, Matteo Darmian and Daley Blind.
"I cannot compare the way he trains and commits, the focus, the ambition. He is a long way behind," he said.
Mourinho was asked by reporters whether he expected more from an England international.
"Joe Hart is an English international and is playing on loan in Italy," he responded.
Shaw signed for the club in June 2014 for £27m but he broke his leg in two places during a Champions League game in September 2015 which kept him out of the game for almost a year.
In November, he was criticised by Mourinho for missing the Premier League win over Swansea after he said he was not able to play.
He was not part of the squad for Saturday's 0-0 draw against West Brom, despite United's lengthy injury list with Juan Mata (groin surgery) the latest addition joining defenders Chris Smalling and Phil Jones and midfielder Paul Pogba.
Mourinho, who was criticised by Match of the Day 2 pundit Chris Sutton for his side's lack of attacking threat, is unsure whether the Frenchman will return for Tuesday's Premier League visit of Everton.
"Pogba I cannot say he is ready for Tuesday because I don't know," he said. "I think Mata, Jones and Smalling for a long time, but I don't think Pogba is such a long-term injury as the others."
Former Manchester United defender Phil Neville on BBC Radio 5 live
"Jose has probably tried lots of things. This might be the final throw of the dice for him to publicly say this is why Luke Shaw is not playing because he is that far behind the levels you need to play football for Manchester United.
"He (Shaw) needs to take a long hard look at himself. He should be England's number one left-back and he should be United's. At the moment, he is fourth or fifth in line and that is really disappointing.
"Sometimes you need a jolt. This might just be what he needs."


A British man has described how he escaped Nepal's devastating earthquake.

Chris Berriman, 56, from Morpeth in Northumberland, was due to climb Everest and was one of the first UK nationals to escape the country.
He was in a bookshop in Kathmandu when the ground began to shake and the room started swaying. He "knew what it was straight away", he said.
Mr Berriman captured images of Saturday's quake which has so far killed more than 6,000 people.
Mr Berriman said: "I was in the centre of Kathmandu when the quake struck. I had only been there a few hours.
"I was in a bookshop at the time and knew immediately it was an earthquake. I knew I needed to get out, but I was being knocked sideways as I walked to the door.
"I could see the buildings outside and the pavements cracking and people just running around in panic.
"I dropped to one knee, thinking that if the bookshop started to collapse I would be safer where I was under the door frame. It was like some sort of survival instinct kicked in.
"In reality, it probably only lasted a minute or two and the I went out and walked down the street for a bit and sat on a kerb because my legs were absolutely shaking.
"I managed to call my wife Nicki and tell her I was OK. But I had to hang up quickly because we were suddenly hit by an aftershock and realised I had to find a more open space. So I started to work northwards and found a wide road where some other people were gathered.
"For the past few years I've had a bit of an obsession to go up Everest. I booked the trip, got there on Friday, but was back by Sunday evening.
"I was lucky. I had a great tour guide who got me to the airport and I managed to get on what I think was the first flight back to the UK.
"But even though I did everything right, I feel deep down that it was luck more than anything that got me out."


You've been using Your Questions to tell us what you have always wondered about the East Midlands.

From "How many farms were flooded to create Rutland Water?" to "Why do they call inhabitants of Tideswell Sawyerheads?"
Here's how we have got on with answering your questions.
We start with an easy one this week. The Rams won it in 1946, beating Charlton Athletic 4-1 at Wembley.
Here's a picture of captain Jack Nicholas with the trophy to prove it.
Leicester City's club historian, John Hutchinson, said the fox part of the badge represents the county and the white flower, a cinquefoil, is for the city.
The cinquefoil can also be seen on the logos for organisations, including Leicester City Council and the University of Leicester.
The fox was chosen in the 1940s when many of the club's directors came from the county, a popular fox hunting area.
The club has had a number of different badges, but this current one came into existence in 1992.
We spoke to the Peak District National Park Authority, which told us the name is most commonly spelt "Saw Y'eds" and comes from an ancient tale of a local farmer who sawed the head off one of his cows (not the one pictured) after it got stuck in a fence.
As the story goes, a doctor then came along, sewed the stricken animal's head back on and it magically came back to life.
A nice tale - but please don't be tempted to try it yourself.
First of all, we compiled a list of towns and villages in the county starting with these letters: Thurmaston, Thrussington, Thurnby, Thornton, Thringstone, Theddingworth, Thurcaston and Thurlaston. There are also a few with "Thorpe", but we'll get on to them.
Dr Richard Jones, from the University of Leicester, said most of these contain Scandinavian personal names, such as Thormothir (Thurmaston) and Thorsteinn (Thrussington).
Most of the place names also have "tun" at the end - Dr Jones said that was Old English for "estate, farm or village".
He doesn't, however, believe there is any kind of link between the settlements.
However, Professor John Martin from De Montfort University said he was "pretty sure" the "Th" at the start of place names was a variation of the term "thorp", meaning small hamlet or village.
We have a few of those in Leicestershire as well: Thorpe Satchville, Thorpe Astley, Thorpe Arnold and Thorpe Langton.
He said it's also quite common at the end of village names, like Countesthorpe.
Rose used to visit a relative in Oakham, and was interested in how many farms were flooded to create Rutland Reservoir - one of the largest in Europe.
Apparently, 29 agricultural tenancies were lost when it was created in the mid-1970s.
In total, 3% of the entire county was flooded to create the reservoir.
Do you have a question about the East Midlands?
Is there something you have seen or heard you would like us to investigate?
Use the form below to send us your questions.
We could be in touch and your question could make the news.


Ted Cruz has announced he is ending his campaign for the US Republican presidential nomination, after losing heavily to Donald Trump in the Indiana primary.

Mr Trump, a New York businessman who is unpopular with many in his own party, is almost certain to be the nominee.
Earlier, Mr Cruz called Mr Trump a "liar" who was unfit to be president.
In the Democratic battle, Bernie Sanders is projected to beat Hillary Clinton in Indiana.
He trails Mrs Clinton in the all-important delegate count but after this victory he said the contest was still alive.
"Clinton campaign thinks this campaign is over. They're wrong," he said.
What will Clinton v Trump look like?
As it happened - reaction to Cruz quitting
Indiana results as they come in
Mr Cruz's advisers had targeted Indiana as the Texas senator's best hope of halting Mr Trump's march to the nomination.
"We gave it everything we've got, but the voters chose another path," he told supporters in Indiana.
Turn out the lights, the party's over. Ted Cruz and the #NeverTrump movement threw everything they had at Donald Trump in Indiana, and it wasn't enough. It wasn't even close to enough.
They outspent him by more than a million dollars. Mr Cruz practically took up residence in the state for the past two weeks. He named Carly Fiorina as his running mate. Nothing worked.
If there was a defining moment of the Indiana campaign, it was Mr Cruz's fruitless attempt to reason with a group of pro-Trump supporters on Sunday.
Every argument he advanced was rebuffed. Every bit of evidence of Trump malfeasance was denied. Mr Cruz was shouting in the wind.
In the coming days there will be a great reckoning, as the party comes to terms with the prospect of Mr Trump as their standard bearer in the autumn. Some will make peace. Some will despair. Others will say "I'm with her" and reluctantly move to Hillary Clinton's side.
It will be an unprecedented spectacle in modern US political history.
The verbal attacks between him and Mr Trump had reached a new level of intensity on Tuesday.
Mr Cruz attacked the billionaire businessman as "totally amoral", "a pathological liar" and "a serial philanderer".
Mr Trump responded by calling Ted Cruz is a "desperate candidate trying to save his failing campaign".
But hours later, after Mr Cruz announced he was quitting the race, Mr Trump praised him as a "tough, smart competitor".
It is looking increasingly likely that Mr Trump will face Mrs Clinton in the autumn in the battle to succeed President Barack Obama, who will be leaving the White House after two terms.
But Republicans have expressed reservations about Mr Trump's outspoken remarks, which have offended women and Hispanics.
There are also concerns about some of his policies on immigration and national security, like building a wall on the southern US border paid for by Mexico, a ban on Muslims coming to the US and the killing of the families of terrorists.
26 things that Donald Trump believes
What a President Trump would do round the globe
Donald Trump: From mogul to candidate
Trump's disastrous women voter problem
The 40-year hurt behind Trump rise
Full US election coverage from the BBC


MPs have voted to allow fracking for shale gas 1,200m below national parks and other protected sites.

The new regulations - which permit drilling from outside the protected areas - were approved by 298 to 261.
Opposition parties and campaigners criticised the lack of a Commons debate - and accused ministers of a U-turn as they previously pledged an outright ban on fracking in national parks.
The government said its plans would protect "our most precious landscapes".
Energy Minister Andrea Leadsom also said there had already been "enormous debate" on the subject.
MPs overwhelmingly rejected a bid to suspend drilling for shale gas in a Commons vote in January, during which ministers also pledged an "outright ban" on fracking in national parks.
Labour has said the government's plans, contained in a draft regulation, represent a U-turn on this commitment, and called for stronger safeguards.
The proposals, first set out in July, would only allow fracking 1,200m below national parks, Areas of Outstanding National Beauty, the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads and World Heritage Sites.
The drill rigs would have to be positioned outside the boundaries of the protected areas.
Q&A: What is fracking?
Sites of Special Scientific Interest, which are designated to protect wildlife or geology, are not mentioned.
MPs opposed the passing of the draft regulation when it was read out in the Commons on Tuesday evening. Because this happened after the conclusion of the day's main business, parliamentary rules required the vote to be deferred - until Wednesday.
Under this process of so-called deferred divisions, MP voted on the proposal by filling in ballot papers with the result announced later by Deputy Speaker Natascha Engel.
Shadow energy secretary Lisa Nandy accused ministers of using a "parliamentary backdoor" to try to approve the "weak regulations" without debate.
She said: "Fracking should not go ahead in Britain until stronger safeguards are in place to protect drinking water sources and sensitive parts of our countryside like national parks."
The vote to allow fracking under national parks is the latest stage of the political battle over drilling for shale gas, writes BBC political reporter Tom Moseley.
MPs voted in January to continue with fracking, and David Cameron declared last year the UK was going "all out" for shale gas - but it remains a controversial issue in the Commons.
This is particularly true for MPs - including many Conservatives - facing fracking, and vocal anti-fracking campaigns, in their constituencies.
In January the government said there would be an outright ban on fracking in protected areas. But that was under the Tory/Lib Dem coalition, and in July the new Conservative administration unveiled new guidelines allowing drilling at least 1,200m under ground.
These were the regulations approved in today's deferred division - sparking accusations of a U-turn from Labour, which wants a moratorium on fracking until "we can be sure it is safe".
Four Tories voted against the government including London mayoral candidate and environmental campaigner Zac Goldsmith and Sarah Wollaston, whose Totnes seat includes Dartmoor national park.
Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said the government had shown a "complete lack of regard for protecting some of the most beautiful scenery in the UK and its wildlife", while Greenpeace criticised the use of what it called an "arcane parliamentary process".
Rose Dickinson, of Friends of the Earth, said the new rules would put drinking water and national parks "at risk of fracking" and represented "a complete U-turn on earlier promises".
No fracking is currently taking place in the UK, but details of sites where drilling is likely to take place are expected on Wednesday.
More than 100 sites, of 10km across, are expected to be granted licences, with most in Northern England.
Ms Leadsom said it was "rubbish" to say the government had tried to "sneak in" the new regulations.
Responding to criticism from environmental campaigners, she said moving from coal to gas was a "huge decarbonisation win", adding that shale gas could improve energy security, as well as creating "thousands of jobs" and "billions to the exchequer".
A Department of Energy and Climate Change spokesman added: "The UK has one of the best track records in the world for protecting our environment while developing our industries - these regulations will get this vital industry moving while protecting our environment and people."


Huge regional disparities in funding could leave schools without teachers unless they receive some extra money, say head teachers.

Funding can vary by as much as £3,000 per pupil but the government has pledged to even things out.
The Association of School and College Leaders is urging ministers to "grasp the nettle" on fairer school funding.
The Department for Education has said it increased the budgets of the 69 least fairly-funded areas for 2015-16.
Historically, more money has been channelled towards areas that have high levels of social need, with cash targeted towards those in the inner cities and areas of deprivation.
Heads argue the disparity between higher and lower funded areas has been magnified by the pupil premium - money targeted at children from poor backgrounds - with £1,320 per child at primary level and £935 in secondary schools.
Additionally, schools are facing increasing pressures on their budgets because of the rising costs of pensions, national insurance contributions and teachers' pay over the coming years.
Malcolm Trobe, deputy general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, told the Times Educational Supplement that England's worst funded schools were "not going to be able to afford to put teachers in front of classes" without additional money.
He adds: "It is essential that fairer funding proposals are brought forward as soon as possible. This issue has gone unresolved for too long and previous governments have failed to grasp the nettle.
"The complexity of introducing a fairer funding formula and the need to phase in the new arrangements mean it must be dealt with early in the Parliament. The opportunity to resolve this issue must not be allowed to slip away once again.
"A new formula should establish a sufficient base level of funding per pupil, with additional funding to reflect disadvantage which incorporates the existing pupil premium.
"To be clear. We are not calling for the end to the pupil premium. Our approach is to have a single deprivation funding stream rather than the two that currently exist - one of which is the pupil premium - as this would lead to a fairer distribution of the funds."
The concern has been raised only days after the new Education Select Committee chairman Ian Carmichael wrote to Education Secretary Nicky Morgan asking when the government would be publishing its plans to shake up school funding.
The DfE has committed to introducing a national funding formula after the next spending review.
And it has put an extra £390m into the schools budget for 2015-16 to increase the per pupil budgets of the 69 least fairly funded areas.
"We are ensuring schools across England are funded fairly so that all pupils, whatever their background and wherever they live in the country, have access to a good education," said a spokesman.
"This is a priority for the government and a key part of our core mission to extend opportunity to all.
"These are complex reforms that we have to get right."


Voting has begun in the UK general election, with 59 Scottish seats up for grabs.

Polling stations opened at 07:00 and will remain open until 22:00 on Thursday. Counting will begin when polls close.
More than four million people are registered to vote in Scotland, almost 94% of the adult population.
The first results from the 59 Scottish constituencies will be declared during the early hours of Friday morning.
Strict rules mean the BBC - in common with other broadcasters - is not allowed to report details of campaigning until after the polls close.
There are more than 5,000 polling places in Scotland with schools, village halls and community centres transformed for the day to allow people to cast their votes.
Figures from the National Records of Scotland showed that by 2 March a total of 4.04 million people in Scotland had registered to vote.
Fine weather is forecast across the country, although voting experts say there is no evidence to suggest this will boost turnout.
The Electoral Commission in Scotland has urged people not to panic if they cannot find their polling cards, as they will still be able to vote if they are registered.
A spokeswoman said anyone who does not know the location of their polling station should contact their local electoral registration office.
BBC Scotland will be delivering extensive coverage of the election results across online, TV and radio.
It will report live from Scotland's 32 counting centres after polls close.
There will then be analysis, background, reaction and debate as we find out the results from each of Scotland's constituencies.
Headlines from a UK-wide exit poll will be projected onto the exterior of BBC Scotland's studios at Pacific Quay.
And the results of the ballot will also appear on the side of the building, which sits on the banks of the River Clyde in Glasgow.


Broadway musical hit An American in Paris, inspired by the Oscar-winning MGM film classic starring Gene Kelly, is to open in the West End next year.

The show, directed by British choreographer Christopher Wheeldon, tells the story of an American GI falling in love in post-war Paris.
The Broadway production won four Tony awards in 2015, with Wheeldon picking up the prize for best choreography.
It will open at London's Dominion Theatre on 21 March 2017.
Both of the Broadway leads will reprise their roles in the West End production, as part of a company of more than 50 actors, dancers and musicians.
New York City Ballet principal dancer Robert Fairchild will play Jerry Mulligan, the American GI striving to make it as a painter in Paris, and British Royal Ballet soloist Leanne Cope will play the beautiful young dancer Lise Dassin with whom he falls in love.
The show's songs, by George and Ira Gershwin, include I Got Rhythm, 'S Wonderful, and They Can't Take That Away From Me.
The stage adaptation includes a reimagined version of the famous 17-minute ballet sequence between Kelly and co-star Lesley Caron that concludes the 1951 film.
An American in Paris had been rumoured for a London transfer after a casting call for ballet dancers appeared in February.
Wheeldon's production had its world premiere in Paris at the Theatre du Chatelet in 2014 before it transferred to New York's Palace Theatre in April 2015.  A major North American tour begins later this year.


Campaigners have apologised after wrongly including the names of two business leaders among 250 signatories to a letter backing exit from the EU.

Vote Leave has removed the Carphone Warehouse co-founder, David Ross, and John Caudwell - who started Phones 4U - from the list published on Saturday.
A spokesman said Mr Ross's name was included in error and apologised.
He said Mr Caudwell had supported the campaign in the past, though he had not put himself forward for the list.
The Vote Leave spokesman added: "Mr Caudwell has been listed as a supporter of the campaign since he signed up in October last year.
"He has not told us that he no longer supports us but we have removed him from the list."
Other signatories include former HSBC chief executive Michael Geoghegan, JD Wetherspoon pub boss Tim Martin, hotelier Sir Rocco Forte and Luke Johnson - chairman of continental-style cafe chain Patisserie Valerie.
A referendum on whether the UK should stay in the EU will be held on 23 June.
The announcement of business leaders supporting the UK's EU exit came after bosses of 36 of the largest listed companies in Britain signed a letter urging voters to remain in the EU last month.
Vote Leave also announced that its business council would be chaired by John Longworth, who resigned his role as director general of the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) earlier this month.


A British soldier has died in Iraq, the Ministry of Defence has said.

The soldier, who has not been named, served in the 2nd Battalion, Duke of Lancaster's Regiment.
The death in the rural district of Taji, north of Baghdad, was "not the result of enemy activity", the MoD said. An investigation is under way and the soldier's family have been told.
Taji, to the north of Baghdad, is home to Camp Taji, also known as Camp Cooke, which is a coalition forces base.
A spokesman from the MoD said: "The death occurred in Taji, Iraq, following an incident that is currently under investigation, but we can confirm that it was not as a result of enemy activity."