Stink+Worm

**Phyla**: Hemichordata

**Class**: Clitellata

**Scientific Name**: Eisenia fetida

**Common Name**: Red Worm

**Location**: They are native to Europe, but have been introduced to every other continent.

**Size**: **Length**: 35-130mm **Segments**: 80-120

**Habitat**: They live on the surface of the soil (or in the top 10 inches or so of the topsoil) under the litter layer.

**Living Requirements**: 1) Moisture 2) Warmth 3) A Food source 4) Darkness 5) Oxygen

**Life Cycle**: They start off as a larvae and continue to they reach the adult stage where they could live for years or just days.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">**Male and Female differences**: Hermaphrodites. They lay side by side with their heads pointed in opposite directions and secrete a mucous that "seals" their bodies together. They then exchange sperm which is deposited on the surface of the skin and then moves to a pore a few segments above the clitellum where it is temporarily stored. Each worm also excretes its own eggs into pores on its skin surface not far from the sperm pore.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">**Interesting Facts**: These are the worms that pee on you everytime you hold them. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">Even though they are hermaphrodites they still need two worms to reproduce.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">**Human Impact**: They are widely sold by weight for use in vermiculture owing to their remarkable ability to process organic matter into fertile compost. They are also sold as bait.

Zookeeper: Sarah Reimer Content recieved from: [] [] [] Images recieved from: [] [|red_wiggler_worm.jpg]