Brown leaf eater

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Brown leaf eater
Systematics
Trunk : Annelids (Annelida)
Class : Belt worms (Clitellata)
Order : Little bristle (Oligochaeta)
Family : Earthworms (Lumbricidae)
Genre : Lumbricus
Type : Brown leaf eater
Scientific name
Lumbricus castaneus
( Savigny , 1826)

The brown leaf eater ( Lumbricus castaneus ) is a species from the earthworm family . It becomes 3–8 cm long (in North America 3–5 cm) and has a maroon to slightly purple color. In contrast to other earthworm species, the rear end is colored in the same way as the rest of the body. The brown leaf eater lives as a saprobiont in and on soils of deciduous forests , gardens and pastures .

distribution

The brown leaf eater occurs in Palearctic Europe, North America (Canada to Mexico), New Zealand, St. Helena and Iceland. After the last glacial period it was not resident in most areas, it spread from southern European areas across Europe and via humans into the areas separated by the seas.

Way of life

The brown leaf eater spends most of its time above the ground in the leaf litter , where it feeds on composting plant parts (saprophag) and dung from herbivores ( coprophag ). For degradation of cellulose it produces cellulase . The average digestion time is 3 to 6 hours. In poor (dry) conditions, brown leaf-eaters can retreat 1–1.5 meters below the surface. The formation of cocoons was not observed.

The predators of the brown leaf eater are numerous and the same as for other earthworms, e.g. B. insects (for example ants, grave beetles), birds (for example blackbirds, black-headed gulls.) And small mammals (for example moles, hedgehogs).

ecology

Brown leaf-eaters and other earthworms play an important role as saprobionts for the yield quality of cultivated soils. As pointer animals , they are quantitative environmental indicators of the soil fauna and the qualitative influencing factors on soil ecology in their area of ​​distribution.

Grave beetles primarily hunt slugs as prey. Since they can feed on earthworms such as the brown leaf eater at times when their primary prey is lacking, this prey plays a bridging role and allows the grave beetles to effectively control the snail population in the long term - in this respect they do not follow the first Lotka-Volterra rule .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Native earthworms. HyperSoil project, 2006, accessed July 30, 2012 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g John W. Reynolds: The earthworms (Lumbricidae and Sparganophilidae) of Ontario. Life Science Miscellaneous Publications, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto 1977.
  3. ↑ a b c Electronic Atlas of the Wildlife of British Columbia: Lumbricus castaneus , viewed May 20, 2014.
  4. ↑ a b Stefan Scheu, Marin Falca: The soil food web of two beech forests (Fagus sylvatica) of contrasting humus type: stable isotope analysis of a macro-and a mesofauna-dominated community. In: Oecologia 123, No. 2, 2000, pp. 285-296.
  5. ↑ Bold Systems: Lumbricus castaneus , viewed May 20, 2014.
  6. ↑ James P. Curry, Olaf Schmidt: The feeding ecology of earthworms - a review. In: Pedobiologia 50, No. 6, 2007, pp. 463-477, doi: 10.1016 / j.pedobi.2006.09.001 .
    • P. Holter: Effect of earthworms on the disappearance rate of cattle droppings. In: Earthworm Ecology. Springer Netherlands, 1983, Chapter 5, pp. 49-57.
  7. ^ F. Urbasek: Cellulase activity in the gut of some earthworms. In: Revue d'Ecologie et de Biologie du Sol 27, No. 1, 1990, pp. 21-28.
  8. ^ N. Hendriksen: Gut load and food retention time in the earthworms Lumbricus festivus and L. castaneus: A field study. In: Biology and Fertility of Soils 11, No. 3, 1991, pp. 170-173.
  9. ↑ a b c R. Andrew King, et al .: Prey choice by carabid beetles feeding on an earthworm community analyzed using species ‐ and lineage ‐ specific PCR primers. In: Molecular Ecology 19, No. 8, 2010, pp. 1721-1732, doi: 10.1111 / j.1365-294X.2010.04602.x .
    • WOC Symondson, DM Glen, ML Erickson, JE Liddell, CJ Langdon: Do earthworms help to sustain the slug predator Pterostichus melanarius (Coleoptera: Carabidae) within crops? Investigations using monoclonal antibodies. In: Molecular Ecology 9, No. 9, 2000, pp. 1279-1292, doi: 10.1046 / j.1365-294x.2000.01006.x .
  10. ^ G. Cuendet: Predation on earthworms by the black-headed gull (Larus ridibundus L.). In: Earthworm Ecology . Springer Netherlands, 1983, pp. 415-424.
  11. ^ Maurizio G. Paoletti: The role of earthworms for assessment of sustainability and as bioindicators. In: Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 74, No. 1, 1999, pp. 137-155, doi: 10.1016 / S0167-8809 (99) 00034-1 .