Chapter 11
Growth and Reproductive Biology
of Earthworms in Organic Waste
Breakdown Under the Indian Condition
Priyasankar Chaudhuri and Susmita Debnath
Abstracts Environmental improvement is an accepted national goal. Under the
present condition of the acute energy crisis and environmental degradation with
rise in population, it has become essential to develop an appropriate technology for
the recovery of energy from non-conventional sources like organic wastes. India
produces 350 million tonnes of organic wastes from different agricultural sources.
Out of these, several million tonnes of plant nutrients are produced. Earthworm
(verm) is known to be a good biological source for the recovery of vermifertilizer
and vermiprotein from the organic wastes to be used in agro-ecosystem and aquaculture and poultry, respectively. Vermicomposting is a process of conversion of
organic waste through the synergistic actions of epigeic earthworm and bacteria.
When earthworms (endogeic or anecic) are applied for breakdown and stabilization
of municipal solid wastes, the process is termed ‘vermistabilization’. The ultimate
goal of both the processes is the production of plant-available nutrients and earthworm biomass (vermiprotein). Earthworm species to be selected for the process
(1) should have great adaptability with respect to environmental factors, (2) should
be capable of inhabiting high percentage of organic matter, (3) should be a prolific
breeder (high fecundity) with high hatching success, and (4) should have short life
cycle. Recent studies indicated that under Indian conditions epigeic species, such as
Perionyx excavatus, Perionyx ceylanensis, Eudrilus eugeniae, Eisenia fetida,
Eisenia andrei, can complete their life cycle in organic waste and produce
vermicompost. Lampito mauritii, Polypheretima elongata, Drawida nepalensis,
Drawida willsi, Metaphire posthuma, Metaphire houlleti can degrade organic matter
in municipal sewage sludge which contains considerable amounts of sand particles.
This chapter deals with the growth and reproduction of these organic waste
degrading earthworms. Based on the study, suitable species for organic waste
degradation are being suggested.
P. Chaudhuri (*) · S. Debnath
Department of Zoology, Earthworm Research Laboratory, Tripura University, Suryamaninagar,
West Tripura, India
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to
Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020
S. A. Bhat et al. (eds.), Earthworm Assisted Remediation of Effluents and Wastes,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4522-1_11
179
Growth and Reproductive Biology
of Earthworms in Organic Waste
Breakdown Under the Indian Condition
Priyasankar Chaudhuri and Susmita Debnath
Abstracts Environmental improvement is an accepted national goal. Under the
present condition of the acute energy crisis and environmental degradation with
rise in population, it has become essential to develop an appropriate technology for
the recovery of energy from non-conventional sources like organic wastes. India
produces 350 million tonnes of organic wastes from different agricultural sources.
Out of these, several million tonnes of plant nutrients are produced. Earthworm
(verm) is known to be a good biological source for the recovery of vermifertilizer
and vermiprotein from the organic wastes to be used in agro-ecosystem and aquaculture and poultry, respectively. Vermicomposting is a process of conversion of
organic waste through the synergistic actions of epigeic earthworm and bacteria.
When earthworms (endogeic or anecic) are applied for breakdown and stabilization
of municipal solid wastes, the process is termed ‘vermistabilization’. The ultimate
goal of both the processes is the production of plant-available nutrients and earthworm biomass (vermiprotein). Earthworm species to be selected for the process
(1) should have great adaptability with respect to environmental factors, (2) should
be capable of inhabiting high percentage of organic matter, (3) should be a prolific
breeder (high fecundity) with high hatching success, and (4) should have short life
cycle. Recent studies indicated that under Indian conditions epigeic species, such as
Perionyx excavatus, Perionyx ceylanensis, Eudrilus eugeniae, Eisenia fetida,
Eisenia andrei, can complete their life cycle in organic waste and produce
vermicompost. Lampito mauritii, Polypheretima elongata, Drawida nepalensis,
Drawida willsi, Metaphire posthuma, Metaphire houlleti can degrade organic matter
in municipal sewage sludge which contains considerable amounts of sand particles.
This chapter deals with the growth and reproduction of these organic waste
degrading earthworms. Based on the study, suitable species for organic waste
degradation are being suggested.
P. Chaudhuri (*) · S. Debnath
Department of Zoology, Earthworm Research Laboratory, Tripura University, Suryamaninagar,
West Tripura, India
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to
Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020
S. A. Bhat et al. (eds.), Earthworm Assisted Remediation of Effluents and Wastes,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4522-1_11
179