22 October: Earthworms

Today is World Earthworm Day. 10 things you might not know about Earthworms.

1. The earthworm belongs to the phylum Annelida. There are over 6,000 different species around the world.

2. The body of an earthworm is divided into segmented rings, each of which is attached to its own set of muscles and has small bristles called setae to help the worm move. Each ring of the worm can contract and relax independently of the rest.

3. They eat organic waste, soil and minerals, their own weight every day. They also excrete their own weight in castings, which helps enrich the soil, break it up and aerate it. This is so good for a garden that gardeners sometimes even buy worm casts as compost. They won’t touch living plant tissue, so it’s a win win.

4. They are hermaphrodites, with each worm having both male and female reproductive parts. That said, they still need another worm in order to mate. When two worms get it on, they each exchange sperm and fertilize each other’s eggs. Each worm then creates a cocoon to hold the eggs until they hatch, about 3 weeks later.

5. The longest earthworm in the world is the African giant earthworm, which can grow up to 6.7m (22ft) long.

6. Earthworms don’t have lungs. They breathe through their skin, but only if their skin is wet. If the skin dries out, the worm cannot breathe. They can survive underwater for a while by absorbing Oxygen from the Water, although they cannot do this indefinitely and would eventually drown. Worms secrete a thin layer of mucus onto their skin to prevent dehydration.

7. They don’t have Eyes, but can sense light through specialised cells in their heads, and will avoid it.

8. They don’t have Hearts, either. Instead they have something called aortic arches. They have five of these to move Blood around their bodies.

9. It’s not true that if you cut a worm in half, both halves will regenerate, giving you two clones. A worm can survive such trauma, but only one half, the one with the pink saddle, will live. The other half will die.

10. Worms are a significant part of the diet of many Birds, such as Robins. In case you’re wondering why so many dead worms are found on paths – why don’t robins hoover them up as an easy meal? - it’s because birds use the movement of the worm to locate it.

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