Are earthworms worms?
Earthworms have not defined an exception to the concept of controlled cultivation. The breeding of worms in captivity has been known since ancient times, although in a very primitive way: a certain concentration of worms was observed in a certain place, excrement was deposited and they observed that the worms did not disperse from the feeding area. As the crops were fertilized with raw excrement, worms were concentrated in these areas, observing that the fruits of these crops were of better quality and in greater abundance, better supporting the attack of pests. In this way, several species have been tested for captive breeding, with greater or lesser success.
But what is meant by earthworms from an agricultural point of view? Earthworms are worms, but not all worms are earthworms. In a generalist and even vulgar way, worms are known as any invertebrate animal organism that apparently crawls based on a substrate, either liquid, semi-solid or solid. Worms are the planarians, very primitive animals. Nematodes and their next phyletic, the pseudocoelomates, are also worms.
Californian red worm adult, after the emission of a coconut.
Likewise, the larvae of many insects (crests, caterpillars, etc.), but in a strict sense, worms are annelid invertebrates, with segmented and metamerized bodies, that is, the body is a succession of rings, in each of which they repeat. some structures (nerve ganglia, muscles, nephridial kidneys, etc). Earthworms are marine, freshwater, or adapted to terrestrial systems with high humidity. The three main groups of worms are the polychaetes (the vast majority, marine), the oligochaetes (most of them freshwater or terrestrial) and the hirudíneos or leeches (marine, freshwater and even terrestrial).