Michaelsen, 1900
Type species Enterion tetraedrum Savigny, 1826
Number of species 5-10. In NWE , at least one species:
Eiseniella tetraedra (Savigny, 1826), with several intraspecific taxa; some of them have been treated as separate species, by different researchers.
Description
Lumbricids with closely paired chaetae, and mostly with a relatively anterior position of the exterior genital organs. Differing from the other lumbricid genera in various characters of internal anatomy.
Burrowing in soil and sediment.
Distribution
Originally Palaearctic but with introductions to many other temperate regions.
Ecology
In wet soil and in freshwater.
Reproduction
Sexual only, often parthenogenetic. Eggs laid in cocoons.
Literature
Eisen, 1873: 54; Eisen, 1874: 47; Omodeo, 1956: 187-188; Michaelsen, 1900: 471; Plisko, 1973: 124; Reynolds, 1977: 83; Perel', 1979: 226; Chekanovskaya, 1981: 490-491; Sims and Gerard, 1985: 90.