ABSTRACT
Many soft-bodied invertebrates use a flexible, fluid-filled hydrostatic skeleton for burrowing. The aim of our study was to compare the scaling and morphology between surface-dwelling and burrowing earthworm ecotypes to explore the specializations of non-rigid musculoskeletal systems for burrowing locomotion. We compared the scaling of adult lumbricid earthworms across species and ecotypes to determine whether linear dimensions were significantly associated with ecotype. We also compared the ontogenetic scaling of a burrowing species, Lumbricus terrestris, and a surface-dwelling species, Eisenia fetida, using glycol methacrylate histology. We show that burrowing species are longer, thinner and have higher length-to-diameter ratios than non-burrowers, and that L. terrestris is thinner for any given body mass compared with E. fetida. We also found differences in the size of the musculature between the two species that may correlate with surface crawling or burrowing. Our results suggest that adaptations to burrowing for soft-bodied animals include a disproportionately thin body and strong longitudinal muscles.
FOOTNOTES
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing or financial interests.
Author contributions
Both authors were involved in the planning of the experiments. J.A.K. collected and analyzed the data, and drafted the initial manuscript. W.M.K. revised the manuscript and assisted with data analysis.
Funding
This study was funded by the National Science Foundation [Grant IOS-0951067 to W.M.K.].
Supplementary material
Supplementary material available online at http://jeb.biologists.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1242/jeb.119305/-/DC1
- © 2015. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd
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