The Worm

This is about the worm. Our nice little ground dwelling friend.

Earthworms

The Earthworm

Classifications

• Kingdom: Animalia

• Domain: Eukarya

• Class: Oligochaeta

• Phylum: Annelida

The Earthworm

What type of animal is it?

• The earthworm is an invertebrate, round worm that is mostly non-parasitic. Earthworms have soft moist bodies. The bodies are segmented and round.

• (but you already know this )

The Earthworm

Where they live

• Earthworms live in deep, dark, narrow tunnels underground. Earthworms are found in moist soils, it is estimated that 50,000 earthworms live in 1 acre of moist soil. Earthworms are also found under rocks and felled trees.

The Earthworm

What/how they eat

• Most earthworms are scavengers that feed on dead and decaying things in the soil. They feed by passing soil through the pharynx and into the crop and gizzards and then out through the intestine and anus. In this process, the earthworm extracts the nutrients from the soil as it passes through their bodies.

• And if you are short, earthworms will eat you.

The Earthworm

Interesting facts

• Interesting facts of earthworms are, they can regenerate from wherever they break. Each segment of there bodies is separate and have separation walls called septa. Earthworms move by tiny bristles on their bodies called setae, each segment has 4 to 6 depending on the species. Every segmented worm is the same, the body organs are in the same place in every worm, and all the segments are the same.

The Earthworm

How they may affect us, and the environment

• The waste produced by the earthworm is highly enriched with nutrients. These nutrients that the worms produce feed the flowers and other microorganisms that live in the same habitat. Earthworms help us by producing fertile land for humans to farm, there for humans can grow crop to eat.

• If you aren’t careful, earthworms will however eat you.

The Earthworm

This is the last slide

That is the end of my earthworm presentation.

All forms of cash donations will be accepted at the end of class.

The Earthworm

Bibliography

Books:Earthworms, Dorothy Childs Hogner, 1953, Thomas Y.

Crowell, New York

Prentice Hall Biology, Miller and Levine, 2002, New Jersey

Websites:Australian museum, (2003), Earthworms, Retrieved 04-26-05

from http://www.amonline.net.au/factsheets/earthworms.htm