The Eudrilidae are a family of

earthworm An earthworm is a soil-dwelling terrestrial invertebrate that belongs to the phylum Annelida. The term is the common name for the largest members of the class (or subclass, depending on the author) Oligochaeta. In classical systems, they we ...

s, mostly of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

. One species, ''

Eudrilus eugeniae ''Eudrilus eugeniae'', also called the "African nightcrawler", is an earthworm species native to tropical west Africa and now widespread in warm regions under vermicompost; it is an excellent source of protein and has great pharmaceutical potent ...

'' (Kinberg, 1867), is widely distributed around the warmer parts of the world and historically cultured as the "African nightcrawler".Blakemore (2015). - http://africaninvertebrates.org/ojs/index.php/AI/article/view/395 The male pores of eudrilids are in segment 17, as is also typical of Ocnerodrilidae. Eudrilids differ from the family Megascolecidae and Acanthodrilidae in having euprostates, i.e., a muscular and possibly glandular development of the vasa deferentia (male ducts from testes) that open to the male pores. Eudrilids further differ from megascolecids, and ocnerodrilids in the development of internal

fertilisation Fertilisation or fertilization (see spelling differences), also known as generative fertilisation, syngamy and impregnation, is the fusion of gametes to give rise to a zygote and initiate its development into a new individual organism or of ...

with the equivalent of the

spermathecae The spermatheca (pronounced : spermathecae ), also called ''receptaculum seminis'' (: ''receptacula seminis''), is an organ of the female reproductive tract in insects, e.g. ants, bees, some molluscs, Oligochaeta worms and certain other inver ...

opening directly to the ovisacs, allowing sperm to combine with the eggs from the ovaries via a female opening in segment 14.

References

Bibliography

*Sims, R.W. 1967. Earthworms (Acanthodrilidae and Eudrilidae) from Gambia. Bulletin of the

British Museum of Natural History The Natural History Museum in London is a museum that exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history. It is one of three major museums on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, the others being the Science Museum (Lo ...

16: 1-43. *Zicsi, A. 1997. Contribution to the knowledge to the earthworm fauna of East Africa (Oligochaeta: Eudrilidae), with description of a new species of ''Polytoreutus''.

Revue suisse de Zoologie The ''Revue suisse de Zoologie'' (English: ''Swiss Journal of Zoology'') is a biannual peer-reviewed scientific journal for zoological systematics. It is published by the Natural History Museum of Geneva (Switzerland). It is financed by the Swis ...

. Dec. 104 *Blakemore, R.J. 2013. The major megadrile families of the World reviewed again on their taxonomic types (Annelida: Oligochaeta: Megadrilacea). ''Opuscula Zoologica Budapest'' 44(2): 107–127

Haplotaxida {{Annelid-stub