Red Earthworm or Litter Worm

The Red Earthworm is epigeic or anecic, usually reddish-brown or reddish violet, with a yellowish colouration.

Species introduction

At a glance
Latin name: 
Lumbricus rubellus
Family: 
Earthworms
Family Latin name: 
LUMBRICIDAE
Category: 
Invertebrates

Species description

Species description

This species is epigeic or anecic, usually reddish-brown or reddish violet, with a yellowish colouration on the ventral surface, and an iridescent dorsal surface.  Each segment contains four pairs of bristles (setae).

Species photographs

Larger photograph(s) (click to magnify)
The Red Earthworm is epigeic or anecic, usually reddish-brown or reddish violet, with a yellowish colouration.

Details

Species family information

Nearly all British earthworms belong to this large northern hemisphere family. Having retractile body structures helps them while burrowing. Species of this family have four pairs of setae per segment, which have diagnostic usefulness.

Category information

Nucleic multicellular photosynthetic organisms lived in freshwater communities on land as long ago as a thousand million years, and their terrestrial descendants are known from the late Pre-Cambrian 850 million years ago. Embryophyte land plants are known from the mid Ordovician, and land plant structures such as roots and leaves are recognisable in mid Devonian fossils. Seeds seem to have evolved by the late Devonian. The Embryophytes are green land plants that form the bulk of the Earth’s vegetation. They have specialised reproductive organs and nurture the young embryo sporophyte. Most obtain their energy by photosynthesis, using sunlight to synthesise food from Carbon Dioxide and Water.

The earliest known plant group is the Archaeplastida, which were autotrophic. Listing just the surviving descendants, which evolved in turn, we have the Red Algae, the Chlorophyte Green Algae, the Charophyte Green Algae, and then the Embryophyta or land plants. The earliest embryophytes were the Liverworts, followed by the Hornworts, and the Mosses. Then we have the Vascular Plants, the Lycophytes and Ferns, followed by the Spermatophytes or seed plants, the Gnetophytes, Conifers, Ginkgos, and Cycads, and finally the Magnoliophyta (Angiosperms) or flowering plants.

Further information

Earthworm Information

Our local representatives of the huge group of Annelid worms are easily distinguished and among the most recognisable of our invertebrates. Earthworm bodies are constructed of many ridged segments (called annuli) covered in minute hairs (setae) like small bristles, with which they burrow and move. They have no lungs, but breathe through the skin. To keep the skin moist they secrete mucus. Earthworms are hermaphrodite, but two worms are needed for mating as they are not self-fertilising. Along the body is the clitellum, or saddle, which contains both male and female sex organs. A linear area of the clitellum is called the Tubercula pubertatis (TP), and this indicates that the individual is a sub-adult. If there is no clitellum, and therefore no TP, the individual is a juvenile. About half-way between the head and the TP will be the ‘male pore’, if there is one. 

Earthworms are omnivores, eating plant material and small invertebrates. They occur in most soils, unless they are extremely acidic or waterlogged, and need to maintain moisture levels, so tend to lie dormant if conditions are very cold or dry. They are active at night, consuming soil and extracting food from it. The mouth is in the first segment, and the unwanted soil debris is passed through the body. Their burrowing aerates the soil, and their feeding helps distribute minerals and organic matter, so they are vital to soil health. In the UK we have one species in the family Acanthodrilidae, one species in the family Sparganophilidae, and 28 species in the family Lumbricidae. 

Four common lifestyles are recognised amongst British earthworms. Compost earthworms seek warm, moist rotting vegetation, such as garden compost heaps. They are often bright red in colour and have striped markings. Anecic earthworms make permanent vertical burrows in soil, and drag leaves down into them to feed on. They make casts on the surface, and some make piles of casts (middens) round the burrow entrance. They are usually darkly coloured at the head end, red or brown, with paler tails. Endogeic earthworms live in and feed on soil, and make horizontal burrows. They are often pale coloured, grey, pink, green or blue. Epigeic earthworms live on the surface in leaf litter, and are often bright red but do not have striped markings.