Vermiculture in Egypt: - FAO - Regional Office for the Near East and

For three millennia (3,000 years), the thriving civilization of ancient Egypt was
strikingly successful for two reasons: 1) The Nile River, which brought abundant
water to the otherwise parched lands of the region; and 2) the billions of earthworms
that converted the annual deposit of silt and organic matter, brought down by the
annual floods into the richest food-producing soil anywhere. Those Egyptian worms
are thought to be the founding stock of the night crawlers that slowly spread
throughout Europe and eventually came to the Western Hemisphere with the early
settlers (Burton and Burton, 2002).
1.2. Geographic distribution of earth worms
4
Photo 1.1.
Rich fertile soil of
the Nile Delta
enables wide variety
of crops to be
grown.
Source: Author
The diversity of earthworm community is influenced by the characteristics of soil,
climate and organic resources of the locality as well as history of land use. The
species poor communities are characterized by extreme soil conditions such as low
pH, poor fertility, low fertility litter or a high degree of soil disturbance. The most
significant soil factors affecting the distribution of different species of earthworm are
the C/N ratio, pH and contents of Al, Ca, Mg, organic matter, silt and coarse sand
(Ghafoor et al., 2008).
Europe is the original home of some of most common and productive earthworm
species: Lumbricus rubellus (the red worm or red wiggler); Eisenia foetida (the
brandling, manure worm or tiger worm); Lumbricus terrestris (the common night
crawler); and Allolobophora ealignosa (the field worm). The first two species are the
major „„earthworms of commerce, whose ideal living environments are manure or
compost heaps. The night crawler and field worms, on the other hand, both prefer
grasslands and woodland margins. The main types in Egypt are Alma nilotico and A.
stuhlmannt. Details of distribution of types will be discussed later in this chapter.
Over 3500 earthworm species have been described worldwide, and it is estimated that
further surveys will reveal this number to be much larger. Distinct taxonomic groups
of earthworms have arisen on every continent except Antarctica, and, through human
transport, some groups have been distributed worldwide (Hendrix and Bohlen, 2002).
Earthworms are classified within the phylum Annelida, class Clitellata, subclass
Oligochaeta, order Opisthophora. There are 16 families worldwide (Table 1.1). Six of