Enchytraeidae

Lang, Birgit & Russell, David J., 2022, Excretion of nitrogenous waste by soil fauna and assessment of the contribution to soil nitrogen pools, Soil Organisms 94 (2), pp. 69-83 : 71

2.2 Enchytraeidae

Enchytraeidae belong to the Oligochaeta and, as with earthworms, the excretoric function is carried out by metanephridia which open by nephridiopores on the body surface. Enchytraeids are reported to be ammonotelic ( Larsen et al. 2007, Maraldo et al. 2011). In contrast to the closely related earthworms, no urea excretion has been found so far ( Larsen et al. 2007).

Quantitative measurements of nitrogen excretion are only available for two species, Enchytraeus crypticus Westheide & Graefe, 1992 and Cognettia sphagnetorum (Veydovsky, 1878) which were incubated on moist sand in these experiments ( Tab. 2). Measurements range from 0.07 to 0.8 µg N mg-1 day-1 with a mean nitrogen excretion of 0.347 µg N mg-1 day-1. For C. sphagnetorum, Maraldo et al. (2011) report a temperature dependence with higher nitrogen excretion at increased temperatures. There is no published information available on other factors that could influence nitrogen excretion.