An earthworm that makes deep burrows, feeding on leaf litter at the surface and sometimes pulling it underground. It connects life above and below the soil.
The long body is divided into many ring-like segments.
This earthworm can vary its burrow shape in shallow soil, making J-shaped burrows with a bent lower end, U-shaped passages and circular configurations.
A 2024 study examined this flexibility at a former industrial site in northwestern England, where shallow topsoil lay above waste from historical chemical manufacture. In March 2010, researchers introduced 160 worms collected from nearby woodland into experimental plots.
After four days, twelve successfully resin-cast burrows averaged 11 cm deep. They avoided the waste below, and most bent at the boundary. Shallow burrows persisted after fourteen months; five years later, adults and young worms were recovered. Three other worms kept in laboratory boxes also made U-shaped or circular burrows within the topsoil after nine months, documenting flexibility beyond the usual deep-burrowing pattern.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
In Missouri it is introduced from Europe. The effects of non-native earthworms vary with the region and its original habitats.
Minnesota’s Department of Natural Resources explains that non-native earthworms can remove the leaf-litter layer of previously earthworm-free forests, affecting woodland plants and soils. To prevent further introductions, it recommends keeping unwanted fishing worms out of forests and disposing of unused bait in the trash. This protects native ecosystems in the introduced range.