On alpine pastureland the decline in large-bodied earthworm numbers and biomass after abandonment of management might be the result of a shift from highly palatable grass litter to poorly digestible leaf litter of dwarf shrubs. To test this hypothesis, we analysed nitrogen, phosphorous and total phenolic contents of fresh and aged litter of eight commonly occuring alpine plant species and compa...

Despite their ubiquity and ecological significance in temperate ecosystems, the behavioural ecology of earthworms is not well described. This study examines the mechanisms that govern aggregation behaviour specially the tendency of individuals to leave or join groups in the compost earthworm Eisenia fetida, a species with considerable economic importance, especially in waste management applicat...

Earthworm collectings on Corsica and Sardinia resulted in recording eight species belonging to the families Lumbricidae Hormogastridae. Among them, Octodrilus transpadanus represents a new record for fauna of Eumenescolex zoltani sp. nov. from is science.

In spite of the high relevance of lumbricid earthworms ('Oligochaeta': Lumbricidae) for soil structure and functioning, the taxonomy of this group of terrestrial invertebrates remains in a quasi-chaotic state. Earthworm taxonomy traditionally relies on the interpretation of external and internal morphological characters, but the acquisition of these data is often hampered by tedious dissections...

Identifying the earthworm material recently collected from different parts of Bulgaria (Rila Mountain, Danube plain, Thracian Lowland and Sub-Balkan valleys) resulted in twelve records of lumbricids, including two earthworm species discovered for the first time in the country. The occurrence of Cernosvitovia munteniana Zicsi & Pop, 1991 in Bulgaria and also on the territory of the Balkan Penins...

Underground community assemblies have not been studied well compared with aboveground communities, despite their importance for our understanding of whole ecosystems. To investigate underground community assembly over evolutionary timescales, we examined terrestrial earthworm communities (Oligochaeta: Haplotaxida) in conserved mountainous primary forests in Japan as a model system. We collected...

ALMOST ALL LUMBRICID EARTHWORMS (OLIGOCHAETA Lumbricidae) harbor extracellular species-specific bacterial symbionts of the genus Verminephrobacter (Betaproteobacteria) in their nephridia. The symbionts have a beneficial effect on host reproduction and likely live on their host's waste products. They are vertically transmitted and presumably associated with earthworms already at the origin of Lu...