Orsted, 1844
Type species Lumbricus lineatus Müller, 1774
Number of species about 90. Three species known from fresh waters of NWE:
Lumbricillus fennicus Nurminen, 1964
Lumbricillus lineatus (Müller, 1774)
Lumbricillus rivalis (Levinsen, 1884)
Description
Small to large, mostly reddish enchytraeids. Chaetae usually in fan-like bundles, sigmoid without nodulus, but also straight in some species. Head pore in 0/1. Ventral chaetae lacking at male pores in XII. Internal characters: Pharyngeal glands in three pairs, mostly as dorsal lobes only. No appendages on digestive tube. Blood usually reddish or yellow, dorsal blood vessel reaches up to clitellar or postclitellar segments. Spermathecae in V, simple, without diverticula, connected with oesophagus. Prominent glands at ectal end of spermathecae, sometimes also on ectal duct. Numerous lobes of sperm vesicles full of spermatozoa, attached to body wall at 10/11 and extending bush-like into cavity of neighbouring segments. Vasa deferentia long and narrow. Penial bulbs present. No atrial glands. No egg sacs; numerous mature eggs present at a time in clitellar region. Differing from the most related genera in fan-like bundles of sigmoid chaetae without nodulus (but straight in some species); among the internal characters, highly characteristic of Lumbricillus are very large bush-like seminal vesicles in the last 2-3 preclitellar segments.
Burrowing in sediment.
Distribution
Cosmopolitan.
Ecology
In the marine littoral, in brackish and freshwater, in soil.
Reproduction
Sexual only, with eggs laid in cocoons. Polyploid parthenogenetic forms known in some species.
Literature
Orsted, 1844: 68; Claparède, 1861: 75; Nielsen and Christensen, 1959: 96; Kasprzak, 1986: 126-127.