What do worms eat for kids

Home » Earthworm Facts for Kids. Earthworms are pretty amazing creatures. If you look at an earthworm you can see the body is made up of lots of segments, underneath the segments are muscles which contract and relax allowing the worm to move.

They absorb oxgen through pores in their skin. This is why they come up to the surface when it rains, they need to come to the surface to breathe if their burrow becomes waterlogged. Worms are essential for the wellbeing of plants. The tunnels allow water to reach the roots and the process of the worm eating soil releases nutirents needed by the plants. Worms are also a source of food for other animals. Did you know worms were such amazing creatures? For a light hearted look at the life of a worm, we loved this hilarious book, Diary of a Worm.

We all learned a lot from making our own wormery. Try this fun counting worms activity from Fantastic Fun and Learning. Science Sparks Wild Sparks Enterprises Ltd are not liable for the actions of activity of any person who uses the information in this resource or in any of the suggested further resources. Science Sparks assume no liability with regard to injuries or damage to property that may occur as a result of using the information and carrying out the practical activities contained in this resource or in any of the suggested further resources.

At the center of a worm is the digestive tract , which runs straight through from mouth to anus without coiling, and is flanked above and below by blood vessels the dorsal blood vessel and the ventral blood vessel as well as a subneural blood vessel and the ventral nerve cord, and is surrounded in each segment by a pair of pallial blood vessels that connect the dorsal to the subneural blood vessels.

Many earthworms can eject coelomic fluid through pores in the back in response to stress; Australian Didymogaster sylvaticus known as the "blue squirter earthworm" can squirt fluid as high as 30 cm 12 in. The earthworm's nervous system has three parts: the central nervous system CNS , peripheral nervous system and the sympathetic nervous system. The CNS consists of a bilobed brain cerebral ganglia , or supra-pharyngeal ganglia , sub-pharyngeal ganglia, circum-pharyngeal connectives and a ventral nerve cord.

Earthworms' brains consist of a pair of pear-shaped cerebral ganglia. These are located in the dorsal side of the alimentary canal in the third segment, in a groove between the buccal cavity and pharynx. A pair of circum-pharyngeal connectives from the brain encircle the pharynx and then connect with a pair of sub-pharyngeal ganglia located below the pharynx in the fourth segment. This arrangement means the brain, sub-pharyngeal ganglia and the circum-pharyngeal connectives form a nerve ring around the pharynx.

The ventral nerve cord formed by nerve cells and nerve fibres begins at the sub-pharyngeal ganglia and extends below the alimentary canal to the most posterior body segment. The ventral nerve cord has a swelling, or ganglion, in each segment, i. There are also three giant axons , one medial giant axon MGA and two lateral giant axons LGAs on the mid-dorsal side of the ventral nerve cord. The MGA is 0. The LGAs are slightly wider at 0. The two LGAs are connected at regular intervals along the body and are therefore considered as one giant axon.

The sympathetic nervous system consists of nerve plexuses in the epidermis and alimentary canal. A plexus a web of nerve cells connected together in a two dimensional grid.

The nerves that run along the body wall pass between the outer circular and inner longitudinal muscle layers of the wall. They give off branches that form the intermuscular plexus and the subepidermal plexus. These nerves connect with the circumpharyngeal connective. On the surface, crawling speed varies both within and among individuals.

Earthworms crawl faster primarily by taking longer strides and a greater frequency of strides. Larger Lumbricus terrestris worms crawl at a greater absolute speed than smaller worms. They achieve this by taking slightly longer strides but with slightly lower stride frequencies.

Touching an earthworm stimulates the subepidermal nerve plexus which connects to the intermuscular plexus and causes the longitudinal muscles to contract, thereby the writhing movements when we pick up an earthworm.

This behaviour is a reflex and does not require the CNS; it occurs even if the nerve cord is removed. Each segment of the earthworm has its own nerve plexi. The plexus of one segment is not connected directly to that of adjacent segments. The nerve cord is required to connect the nervous systems of the segments.

The giant axons carry the fastest signals along the nerve cord. These are emergency signals that initiate reflex escape behaviours. The larger dorsal giant axon conducts signals the fastest, from the rear to the front of the animal. If the rear of the worm is touched, a signal is rapidly sent forwards causing the longitudinal muscles in each segment to contract.

This causes the worm shorten very quickly as an attempt to escape from a predator or other potential threat. The two medial giant axons connect with each other and send signals from the front to the rear. Stimulation of these causes the earthworm to very quickly retreat perhaps contracting into its burrow to escape a bird.

The presence of a nervous system is essential for an animal to be able to experience nociception or pain. However, other physiological capacities are also required such as opioid sensitivity and central modulation of responses by analgesics. Injections of nalaxone an opioid antagonist inhibit the escape responses of earthworms. This indicates that opioid substances play a role in sensory modulation, similar to that found in many vertebrates.

Earthworms do not have eyes although some worms do , however, they do have specialised photosensitive cells called "light cells of Hess". These photoreceptor cells have a central intracellular cavity phaosome filled with microvilli.

As well as the microvilli, there are several sensory cilia in the phaosome which are structurally independent of the microvilli. The photoreceptors are distributed in most parts of the epidermis but are more concentrated on the back and sides of the worm. A relatively small number occur on the ventral surface of the 1st segment.

They are most numerous in the prostomium and reduce in density in the first three segments; they are very few in number past the third segment.

The gut of the earthworm is a straight tube which extends from the worm's mouth to its anus. It is differentiated into a buccal cavity generally running through the first one or two segments of the earthworm , pharynx running generally about four segments in length , esophagus, crop, gizzard usually and intestine.

Food enters the mouth. The pharynx acts as a suction pump; its muscular walls draw in food. In the pharynx, the pharyngeal glands secrete mucus. Food moves into the esophagus, where calcium from the blood and ingested from previous meals is pumped in to maintain proper blood calcium levels in the blood and food pH. From there the food passes into the crop and gizzard. In the gizzard, strong muscular contractions grind the food with the help of mineral particles ingested along with the food.

Once through the gizzard, food continues through the intestine for digestion. The intestine secretes pepsin to digest proteins, amylase to digest polysaccharides, cellulase to digest cellulose, and lipase to digest fats. Instead of being coiled like a mammalian intestine, an earthworm's intestine increases surface area to increase nutrient absorption by having many folds running along its length. Have your child come up with a possible list of foods for worms and predict which the worms will eat quickest.

Or have them cut one type of food into different sizes to see which decomposes first. Once you have had your worm bin for a while, you will have vermicompost to experiment with. Try growing seeds with differing amounts of vermicompost added or adding different amounts of compost to plants growing in the garden.

Have your child predict which amounts of compost will produce the best results. Observe changes in the plants for two to four weeks and have them use a tape measure to record growth.

Earthworms are hermaphroditic, meaning they have both male and female characteristics, so they can both fertilize and lay eggs. Eggs are contained in a sheath clitellum that slides off the worm after fertilization. The sheath becomes a cocoon that is deposited in the soil, where it hardened to protect the eggs inside.

You can purchase model sets for a worm life cycle showing each life stage. You can see how tiny the cacoon an baby worms are compared to the tip of a pen. Start the video about a minute in, if you have wiggly kids, as they don't hatch until about then. Worm hatchlings emerge from their protective cocoon at different rates depending on the species, but the range is from three weeks to five months.

Temperature and moisture also impact the amount of time it takes hatchlings to emerge. Only a few hatchlings survive to exit the cocoon. Juvenile Worm:. Depending on the species, it takes anywhere from 10 to 55 weeks for worms to mature. They grow daily and are mature once they have the ability to lay and fertilize eggs. Worms: There are thousands of species that are considered worms, including varieties of annelids like earthworms and red worms, and parasites like hookworms and pinworms.

In nature, worms are vital to ecosystem because they act as decomposers, moving decaying material back into the soil where it can feed plants and continue the cycle of life. Have your children research the web o find the longest worm and different worm colors. I grew up in Scotland and we have green worms, Borneo has blue worms, and Australia has some crazy huge worms Giant Gippsland worm.

Website: Worm Life Cycle Information was from. Video: Worms are Wonderful. Page 14 has a compost critters lesson with good information about each critter and the food web. Contact our education specialist. Kids: Discover Worms. Featured Posts. Invasive Plants Regulated in Ohio. Recent Posts.