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An earthworm is a soil-dwelling terrestrial invertebrate that belongs to the phylum Annelida. The term is the common name for the largest members of the class (or subclass , depending on the author) Oligochaeta .
However, 'earthworm' can be a source of confusion since, in most of the world, other species are more typical. For example, through much of the unirrigated temperate areas of the world, the "common earthworm" is actually Aporrectodea (=Allolobophora) trapezoides, which in those areas is a similar size and dark colour to L. terrestris.
Earthworms are shifting their ranges northwards into forests between 45° and 69° latitude in North America that have lacked native earthworms since the last ice age. [3] Of the 182 taxa of earthworms found in the United States and Canada, 60 (33%) are introduced species, these earthworm species are primarily from Europe and Asia.
Approximately 182 earthworm taxa in twelve families are reported from the United States and Canada, of which sixty (about 33%) are introduced. [4] Only two genera of lumbricid earthworms are indigenous to North America while introduced genera have spread to areas without any native species, especially in the north where forest ecosystems rely on a large amount of undecayed leaf matter.
Oligochaeta (/ ˌ ɒ l ɪ ɡ ə ˈ k iː t ə,-ɡ oʊ-/) [1] is a subclass of soft-bodied animals in the phylum Annelida, which is made up of many types of aquatic and terrestrial worms, including all of the various earthworms.
Lumbricus terrestris has several common names, including common earthworm, nightcrawler, and dew worm. It is strongly pigmented, brown-red dorsally, and yellowish ventrally. Setae are widely paired at both ends of the body.
Gippsland earthworm colonies are small and isolated, [9] and the species' low reproductive rates and slow maturation make those small populations vulnerable. [9] Their natural habitats are grasslands, and while they can survive beneath pastures, [9] cultivation, heavy cattle grazing and effluent run-off are adversarial to the species. [9]
The Lumbricidae are a family of earthworms.About 33 lumbricid species have become naturalized around the world, [1] but the bulk of the species are in the Holarctic region: 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 ...