These invertebrates can be called great workers. Their invisible enormous volumes of work improves and heals the earth. An amazing fact: an earthworm can live up to 16 years, individual individuals grow up to 30 cm (and in the tropics and up to one and a half meters), epidemics do not apply to it, it never gets sick. Perhaps the only cause of death in nature may be only old age.
The most common include six types of worms.
The tetrahedral earthworm (Eiseniella tetraedra) grows to 5 cm. It is named for the tetrahedral shape of the back and middle parts.
Fetid earthworm (Allophora chlorotica), grows up to 13 cm. Received the name for an unpleasant specific smell (characteristic signs: brown or red rings are separated by light grooves). Lives in garden greasy land and dunghills.
A yellowish-green earthworm (Allophora chlorotica) grows up to 7 cm. It lives in moist soils, in decaying plants (usually in foliage).
Reddish earthworm (Lumbricus rubellus), grows up to 15 cm. The color is reddish-brown and purple (low tide pearl). It prefers shallow depth and moist humus.
Ground earthworm (Lumbricus terrestris), it is called creep. It grows to 30 cm. The most common, was named for "night sorties" to the surface, where it collects plant debris.
The California worm (Eisenia foetida) is widely recognized today for its high fecundity (100 times higher than that of other worms) and "workaholism." Recycle any organics. Cultivated around the world.
Russian scientists have bred compost worms (“technological”, 3 strains) that are not inferior in productivity and characteristics to Californian red and cultivated with the same success. For life and reproduction, the substrate must have a temperature of 22 degrees, humidity of about 75%, pH 7.0. Small deviations from these indicators are permissible. After 3 weeks, babies appear from the eggs, who by the age of three months become sexually mature and already lay their eggs. One such worm reproduces a thousand of its kind in a year.
The external structure of the earthworm
The body is cylindrical, streamlined, devoid of outgrowths that can impede movement in the ground. Length from 5 cm to 30 cm, some much more. The front part is conical, the back is slightly flattened. A rounded small prostomium is located above the mouth (there are no sensitive appendages). Each segment (except the last and first) has 4 pairs of setae arranged in pairs (ventrally and dorsolaterally), which can be retracted and come out, facilitating movement. The longest bristles take part in copulation. But the main role in this process is played by the girdle (from 32 to 37 segments), in the epidermis of which there are glandular cells that form a thickening in the form of a saddle. Worms are bisexual. But breeding still requires mating. The belt is directly involved in the replication and formation of the cocoon. The structure of the earthworm is identical for all species. The differences are due to the fitness of each species to lifestyle.
In addition to the water cycle, there is a cycle of substances in nature. And it is earthworms that take, perhaps, the main part in this process. Since it is their role that allows you to create a new, fertile soil. These gentle, small creatures meekly try to restore what is destroyed by a person who conducts deep plowing and sprinkles the earth with chemistry. It is the worms, passing through the intestines the remains of plants, that ultimately produce vermicompost - the highest quality fertilizer that is perfectly absorbed by plants. In addition, the earth is enriched with the microflora of worms, which contains various enzymes, vitamins, amino acids and even antibiotics.
How to make the soil fertile? Do not spend money and energy on fertilizers. Get worms, create conditions for them and in two or three years you will see amazing results.