Earthworm

A night crawler, one of the earthworm species popular for use in bait fishing. (U.S. Department of Agriculture)As winter draws to a close, gardeners begin their spring migration into the outdoors, leaving winter dens behind and coming into contact with the harbingers of the shifting seasons: shovels, hoes and trowels. Oh, and earthworms. Anyone prone to working the soil knows that upturning the earth exposes these shiny, wigging, pinkish to brownish tubular life forms, sending them thrashing in hasty retreat into the comforting, moist darkness of the soil. Are the worms a garden’s friend or foe? That depends. Here are 10 things you may want to know about earthworms. • Earthworms come in a seemly infinite variety— around 6,000 species worldwide. One of the most familiar of them, the sort you may see in your garden, is commonly known as the night crawler (it typically surfaces after dark), the angleworm (its makes popular bait for fishing) or the rain worm (it leaves waterlogged soil after storms). • Of the more than 180 earthworm species found in the United States and Canada, 60 are invasive species, brought over from the Old World, including the night crawler. • Lacking lungs or other specialized respiratory organs, earthworms breathe through their skin. • The skin exudes a lubricating fluid that makes moving through underground burrows easier and helps keep skin moist. One Australian species can shoot fluid as far as 12 inches through skin pores. • Each earthworm is both ...

Earthworms are present in both poor and rich soils. However, earthworms are more often seen in rich soil where they can find more nutritional ingredients that encourage their growth and development. Different types of earthworms can be categorized based on their traits but also the different species that they belong to. Although all earthworms may look the same to you, you’ll be surprised to see how many types of earthworms species there are. We wrote this article that will help you understand and recognize different types of earthworms. There are thousands of different worm species, and not all of them are considered earthworms. Still, those that we may occasionally see on the side road, in our garden, or lurking around our house are also known as earthworms. Recognizing that a worm you see is an earthworm is fairly easy. However, recognizing which species it is more difficult for most people. Don’t worry, if you continue reading this article, you’ll be able to classify the earthworms based on their category. You will also be able to identify the species if you see it often enough in your garden. What Are Earthworms? There are many different types of worms in the world, lurking beneath the soil, inside some animals, trees, or under rocks. Needless to say, it can be quite difficult to tell the difference between earthworms and other types of worms. With over one million species, the difficulty increases as the list of newly-discovered species is added. But, let’s properly ...

Nine-year-old Barnaby Domigan was playing in his family’s backyard in Christchurch, New Zealand, when he noticed something bobbing in the water of a nearby riverbed. He grabbed a stick, fished it out and discovered it was a three-foot-long, dead earthworm, reports “I could not believe my eyes,” Domigan tells RNZ, adding that he named the creature “Dead Fred.” “I thought it was massive, and amazing, and a little bit disgusting,” he says to Liz McDonald from Stuff. Domigan’s mother, Jo, tells RNZ her son was “pretty delighted” to find it. For her part, she thought that the worm looked unappealing and a bit bloated. “Thankfully, I was at work when said worm was found because, oh my word, how disgusting!” she Though the massive worm looks “a bit like the creature from the black lagoon,” it’s actually likely to be a native earthworm species, says Stuff. “There are some very large native earthworms known—a meter isn’t beyond the borders of reason,” he tells the publication. Still, he says, it’s uncommon to find a giant earthworm in a garden. They usually live in undisturbed areas, like forests. Among New Zealand’s more than Anisochaeta gigantea), which grows to be almost five feet long. In all, more than But the title of the world's largest earthworm species goes to Australia’s Megascolides australis), which is about six feet long. The worm is As for the worm found in Domigan’s garden, its exact species hasn’t been officially confirmed. He put the massive critter back after taki...

• Animals A-Z • Animal Top 10s • Biggest • Most Endangered • Extinct • Fastest • Highest Jumpers • Longest Living • Smallest • Smelliest • Strongest • Endangered by Climate Change • Unusual Sleeping Habits • Hibernators • Unusual Mating Habits • Sun Loving Animals • Most Poisonous Animals • Laziest Animals • Misunderstood animals • Animal Biology • Do Animals Feel Emotions? • Are animals sentient? • Can animals change their sex? • How does climate change impact animals? • Do animals show empathy? • Do fireworks harm animals? • AnimalKind • Beauty Brands • Fashion Brands • Fragrance Brands • Household Products • Adopting a dog • Buying sustainable fish • Ethical Eating • Eco-Friendly Living • Eco-Friendly Parenting • Eco-Friendly Travelling • Reducing Plastic Waste • Creating Wildlife Friendly Gardens • Alternatives to Balloon Releases • Dangerous decorations for dogs • Activities • Campaigns • Blog Earthworms are hermaphrodites. Each has both male and female sex organs, but they cannot fertilize themselves. Earthworms spend most of their lives underground, creating complex burrow networks. They make an essential contribution to soil fertility and are therefore very important in gardens and of farm land. Amazing Facts About the Earthworms • There are thought to be 4,400 species of earthworm! • As the earthworm spends most of its life underground, ploughing through the soil and creating complex burrow networks (that may extend 2m or more beneath the surface), their bodies ar...

Earthworm Physical Characteristics • Brown • Grey • Red • White • Pink Skin up to eight years 0.0088 ounces to 1.5 pounds 0.0088 ounces to 1.5 pounds Size (L): 0.039 inches to nearly 10 feet two to three months This post may contain affiliate links to our partners like Chewy, Amazon, and others. Purchasing through these helps us further the A-Z Animals mission to educate about the world's species. Only The Top 1% Can Ace our Animal Quizzes Think You Can? Take Our Brand New A-Z-Animals Earthworm Quiz Other earthworms might not live in the soil, but they help break down materials that go into manure and compost. They’re also good 3 Incredible Facts! Here are some facts about this essential • Earthworms writhe when people pick them up because the pressure causes their muscles to contract, and the very salt in the person’s skin is toxic to them. • The longest ever found was a member of the Amynthas mekongianus species. This 10-foot long worm was found on the muddy banks of southeast • There are about 180 species of earthworm in the You can check out more • • • • • • • • • • See all of our Classification and History There are about 7,000 species of earthworms, but only 150 are common worldwide. ©Maryna Pleshkun/Shutterstock.com Because there are so many species of earthworms, there are many genus and species names. All, however, belong to the phylum Annelida, which means “little rings” in Latin, to the Class Clitellata, and to the Order Opisthopora. There is some dispute about ...

You may not want to munch on earthworms straight from your backyard, but it’s fairly common to eat other types of worms in various cultures across the globe. In fact, edible insects, including worms, have gained popularity in the West, too, as a potential protein source ( Insect-based protein is reported to be more sustainable than meat due to its low greenhouse gas emissions, low land and water use, and insects’ rapid growth rates ( The European Commission’s Farm to Fork Strategy even recommends insect-based proteins as part of the transition to sustainable food systems ( However, the consumption of worms and other insects alike is often met with hesitancy or even disgust in Western culture ( This article explains everything you need to know about eating worms, including nutrients and safety. Although people in Western cultures generally avoid eating insects, it’s far from a new or unknown practice. Entomophagy, or the consumption of insects as food, is believed to have originated in early human development and remains common throughout certain cultures in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Australia. Over 2,300 insect species are traditionally consumed ( Plus, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization recognizes nearly 500 edible insect species ( Common edible worms include the larvae of grasshoppers, true bugs ( Hemiptera), beetles ( Coleoptera), termites, and butterflies and moths ( Lepidoptera) ( These worms are often fried or even added to alcoholic drinks like mezcal...

EarthWorms (Lumbricus terrestris) Earth Worm Characteristics Earthworms are made up of many small segments known as ‘annuli’. These annuli are ridged and covered in minute hairs that grip the soil allowing the worm to move as it contracts its muscles. At about a third of the worms length is a smooth band known as the clitellum. The clitellum is responsible for secreting the sticky clear mucus that covers the worm. Earthworms vary in size from 90 – 300 millimetres. Earthworms help to fertilise the soil by bringing nutrients closer to the surface. Earthworms are widespread in Britain and Europe. They have been introduced to most parts of the world. They live in soil at depths of up to 2 metres and feed on decaying organic matter in the soil. Earthworms move slowly underground feeding on decaying organic matter in the soil. They excrete digested material as worm casts and these can be seen as squiggly clumps of mud at the surface of the soil. These castings are very rich in nutrients because they contain minerals and nutrients that have been brought closer to the surface by the Earth Worm Reproduction Earthworms are hermaphrodite and have both male and female reproductive cells. They cannot self-fertilise, however, and must find a mate to exchange sperm cells with. Earthworms reach sexual maturity at about 4 weeks old. This species comes to the surface to mate. Copulation, which may take up to an hour, involves two worms lying together with their heads pointing in opposite di...