How do earthworms mate?
Earthworms are bisexual or hermaphroditic, meaning that each individual has both male and female sex organs. When two worms encounter each other, they line themselves up pointing in opposite directions, with their clitella next to each other. They then coil the rest of their bodies around each other and exchange “sperm packets”. Each worm them goes its separate way and uses the sperm packet from the other worm to fertilize its own eggs. The worm then secretes a membrane around its clitellum and stores the fertilized eggs inside this membrane. Then the worm wiggles out of the membrane and leaves it behind as an “egg coccoon”, which quickly hardens to protect the eggs inside. When conditions are right, the eggs hatch and you have little, tiny, white baby earthworms.
