charles darwins observations on the behaviour of earthworms and the evolutionary history of a giant endemic species from germany, lumbricus badensis (oligochaeta lumbricidae)查尔斯·达尔文的观察蚯蚓的行为和一个巨大的地方性物种的进化历史来自德国,地龙badensis(寡毛纲正蚓科).pdfVIP

Hindawi Publishing Corporation Applied and Environmental Soil Science Volume 2010, Article ID 823047, 11 pages doi:10.1155/2010/823047 Review Article Charles Darwin’s Observations on the Behaviour of Earthworms and the Evolutionary History of a Giant Endemic Species from Germany, Lumbricus badensis (Oligochaeta: Lumbricidae) U. Kutschera1 and J. M. Elliott2 1 Institute of Biology, University of Kassel, Heinrich-Plett-Straße 40, D-34109 Kassel, Germany 2 Freshwater Biological Association, The Ferry Landing, Ambleside, Cumbria LA 22 0LP, UK Correspondence should be addressed to U. Kutschera, kut@uni-kassel.de Received 3 June 2009; Accepted 1 December 2009 ´ ´ Academic Editor: Martın Gerardo Rodrıguez Copyright © 2010 U. Kutschera and J. M. Elliott. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The British naturalist Charles Darwin (1809–1882) began and ended his almost 45-year-long career with observations, experiments, and theories related to earthworms. About six months before his death, Darwin published his book on The Formation of Vegetable Mould, through the Actions of Worms, With Observations on their Habits (1881). Here we describe the origin, content, and impact of Darwin’s last publication on earthworms (subclass Oligochaeta, family Lumbricidae) and the role of these annelids as global “ecosystem reworkers” (concept of bioturbation). In addition, we summarize our current knowledge on the reproductive behaviour of the common European species Lumbricus terrestris. In the second part of our account we