Oddly enough, but the reproduction of earthworms is gradually turning into a very profitable business. Worms have a huge impact on both agriculture and nature in general.
What are the benefits of earthworms?
Earthworms provide invaluable help to farmers - they can process a volume of land a hundred times their weight. Thanks to their labor, the earth mass is displaced, which leads to an increase in soil fertility. At the same time, valuable soil rises upward, important aeration of the soil occurs. So the daily life of the worm has a huge impact on the soil, and therefore on the people who are nearby.
If a person is engaged in agricultural increase in the number of earthworms, he often uses various technologies that provoke their mating. Such people usually work in pig and poultry farms - earthworms are an excellent source of protein for their wards. And farmers are happy to help increase the population of earthworms in their plots - they eat the remains of plants, while improving the fertile qualities of the soil.
How do worms reproduce?
Worms belong to a small group of hermaphrodites in nature. An ordinary earthworm for its offspring becomes, as it were, a mother and a father. How does this happen?
When a worm becomes sexually mature, it has the qualities of a male. If you look closely at it, you can see a small glandular belt on the body. It usually develops in 32 or 37 body segments. It is the appearance of this belt that becomes a signal for other individuals that this worm is ready to mate. As soon as in a certain area most of the worms are ready to mate, each individual begins to develop male testes. The mating process itself looks like this - two worms are located with their heads to each other in such a way that the testes of one touch the glandular girdle of the other and vice versa.
During this process, a sticky liquid begins to be released, which serves to "glue" the partners. As soon as the seminal fluid of the other got into the seminal canals of one worm and the exchange took place on both sides, the worms spread out in different directions.
After fertilization, the worm begins to develop ovaries (female reproductive organs). At this time, the fertilized belt (or sleeve) begins to move upward. Female reproductive cells are already located in the region of segment 14. They also add to the girdle filled with the semen of another worm and move to segment 10. And this is where the semen enters the egg. Fertilization occurs. After that, the muff completely leaves its owner and pupates, protecting the developing eggs.
