The Eudrilidae are a family of

earthworm An earthworm is a terrestrial invertebrate that belongs to the phylum Annelida. They exhibit a tube-within-a-tube body plan; they are externally segmented with corresponding internal segmentation; and they usually have setae on all segments. Th ...

s, mostly of

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

. 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 ''Ocnerodrilidae'' is a family of annelids belonging to the order Haplotaxida The Haplotaxida are one of two orders within the annelid subclass Oligochaeta, the other being the Lumbriculida. No real common name exists, but they are simply ref ...

. Eudrilids differ from the family

Megascolecidae The Megascolecidae is a taxonomic family of earthworms which is native to Madagascar, Australia, New Zealand and both South East Asia and North America. All species of Megascolecidae belong to the Clitellata class. Megascolecidae are a large fami ...

and

Acanthodrilidae The Acanthodrilidae are an ancient and widely distributed family of earthworms which has native representatives in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, South America, and North America. No native species are known from India (cf. Octochaetidae) ...

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 new individual organism or offspring and initiate its development. Proce ...

with the equivalent of the spermathecae 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 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. 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