ABSTRACT
The Philippines is a tropical country in Southeast Asia with an agriculture-based economy. There are more than 400 species of endemic and introduced earthworms in the country (James, personal communication). In the Philippines, vermiculture, or the farming of earthworms, started in the late 1970s with the introduction of Pheretima asiatica from Taiwan by the private sector (Catalan 1980). This species, however, was later con¤rmed to actually be Perionyx excavatus by Edwards (personal communication) and Blackmore (personal communication).
