Wildlife
Earthworms
Earthworms are the world's unsung heros. They loosen and mix up the soil, break down and recycle decaying plant matter and fertilise the soil by bringing nutrients closer to the surface. Birds often rely upon worms as a primary source of food. Because earthworms breathe through their skin, they have to come to the surface when it rains or risk drowning. Famously hermaphroditic, earthworms are both male and female in one body, though it still takes two worms to reproduce. Earthworms range in length from a tiny one millimetre to a massive three metres.
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Worm charming
Bill Oddie's How to Watch Wildlife
Blackbirds use vibration to attract worms to the surface.
Blackbirds use vibration to attract worms to the surface.
Snake-sized worm
Deadly 60
Steve Backshall comes across the biggest earthworm he's ever seen.
Steve Backshall comes across the biggest earthworm he's ever seen.
Mating earthworms
Life in the Undergrowth
Infra-red filming sheds light on earthworms as they get together to mate.
Infra-red filming sheds light on earthworms as they get together to mate.
Behaviours
Discover what these behaviours are and how different plants and animals use them.
Helpless young
Detritus recycler
Burrower
Tactile sense
Herbivorous
HermaphroditicAdditional data source: Animal Diversity Web
About
The Lumbricidae is a family of earthworms which includes most of the earthworm species well known to Europeans. About 33 lumbricid species have become naturalized around the world, but the bulk of the species are in Holarctic: from Canada (e.g. Bimastos lawrenceae on Vancouver Island) and the United States (e.g. Eisenoides carolinensis, Eisenoides lonnbergi and most Bimastos spp.) and throughout Eurasia to Japan (e.g. Eisenia japonica, E. koreana and Helodrilus hachiojii). An enigmatic species in Tasmania is Eophila eti. There are currently 670 valid (sub-)species in about 42 recognized genera.
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Classification
- Life
- Animals
- Segmented worms
- Clitellata
- Haplotaxida
- Earthworms
BBC News about Earthworms
- Earthworms eat live seeds and plants, scientists find Earthworms eat seeds and seedlings, scientists have found.
- Earthworms form herds and make "group decisions"
Video collections
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Garden wildlife
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Wild autumn
Autumn - a time of great change, of breathtaking migrations, of high drama.
Elsewhere on the web
- Animal Diversity Web (animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu)
- ARKive: Images of Life on Earth (arkive.org)
- Entry in the Encyclopedia of Life (eol.org)
- Get to know your earthworms (opalexplorenature.org)
- Lumbricidae (wikipedia.org)
bbc.co.uk navigation
BBC links
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