Potential age of aquatic Oligochaeta

• DOI: 10.1007/bf00027901
• Publication Date: 2004-10-30T10:27:49Z
• Authors: Tarmo Timm
• Keywords: Zooid; Facultative; Oligochaeta (plant); Fragmentation; Sexual reproduction

The maximum lifetime of species with exclusively sexual reproduction covers 5–15 years or even more in aquaria, although most specimens die consecutively earlier. The zooids of paratomic species live some weeks or months, their clones usually less than a year, rarely for some years. In the species with facultative architomy (fragmentation) the clonal age also exceeds that of the individual, both lasting for several years. The actual lifetime of worms in nature may be shorter than in cultures.