Earthworm Facts and Information

An Earthworm

Earthworm

An earthworm is a tube-shaped, segmented worm found in the phylum Annelida. They have a world-wide distribution and are commonly found living in soil, feeding on live and dead organic matter. An earthworm's digestive system runs through the length of its body. It conducts respiration through its skin.

Lets learn some interesting facts about Earthworm

1. Earthworms come in a seemly infinite variety—around 6,000 species worldwide.
2. Worms live where there is food, moisture, oxygen and a favorable temperature. If they don’t have these things, they go somewhere else.
3. A worm has no arms, legs or eyes.
4. Lacking lungs or other specialized respiratory organs, earthworms breathe through their skin.
5. In one acre of land, there can be more than a million earthworms.
6. The largest earthworm ever found was in South Africa and measured 22 feet from its nose to the tip of its tail.
7. Worms tunnel deeply in the soil and bring subsoil closer to the surface mixing it with the topsoil. Slime, a secretion of earthworms, contains nitrogen. Nitrogen is an important nutrient for plants. The sticky slime helps to hold clusters of soil particles together in formations called aggregates.
8. Charles Darwin spent 39 years studying earthworms more than 100 years ago.
9. Worms are cold-blooded animals.
10. Each earthworm is both male and female, producing both eggs and sperm.
11. Baby worms are not born. They hatch from cocoons smaller than a grain of rice.
12. Full size for an earthworm varies among species, ranging from less than half an inch long to nearly 10 feet.
13. The Australian Gippsland Earthworm grows to 12 feet long and can weigh 1-1/2 pounds.
14. Even though worms don’t have eyes, they can sense light, especially at their anterior (front end). They move away from light and will become paralyzed if exposed to light for too long (approximately one hour).
15. If a worm’s skin dries out, it will die.
16. Worms are hermaphrodites. Each worm has both male and female organs. Worms mate by joining their clitella (swollen area near the head of a mature worm) and exchanging sperm. Then each worm forms an egg capsule in its clitellum.
17. Worms can eat their weight each day.

Earthworm improves the soil health

Earthworms can improve soil structure as their burrows are used by crop roots (to reach extra moisture and nutrients) and worm casts can cement soil particles together to form aggregates. Burrow walls, worm casts and middens contain concentrated plant available nutrients such as Nitrogen and Sulphur, increasing plant nutrient availability and their deep vertical burrows particularly help water infiltrate.

Additionally, their role in decomposing organic matter helps to stimulate the soil microbial community. All of this helps to improve plant productivity.

You may be interested to read this: 

Soil Profile: Topmost Horizon is more important than all other Horizons

Resource Hub

• Video on Earthworms collecting and eating straw
• AHDB’s fact sheet; How to count earthworms
• www.wormscience.org
• Video on GREATsoils: Soil Health for Horticulture