ABSTRACT
Throughout the world, vermiculture and vermicomposting are growing in importance for various economic and ecological purposes, details of which are provided elsewhere in this volume. Though the applications are diverse, the collection of earthworm species involved is not. Most vermiculture operations use one of four species, Eisenia fetida (Savigny 1826), Eisenia andrei (Bouché 1972), Perionyx excavatus (Perrier 1872), or Eudrilus eugeniae (Kinberg 1867). These all belong to the ecological category of species of epigeic earthworms (Bouché 1977) inhabiting purely organic matter microhabitats in nature. A few other species are cultured on smaller scales and/or in a more restricted geographical extent, such as Lampito mauritii (Kinberg 1867), Dendrobaena veneta (Rosa 1886), or Dendrobaena hortensis (Michaelsen 1890).
