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Guide to New Zealand's freshwater invertebrates
Oligochaete worms
(
Oligochaeta
: Eiseniella
)
Diagnostic features
Eiseniella tetraeda is a large introduced oligochaete worm found mainly in slow flowing streams. Like other oligochaetes they are visibly segmented, but unlike other freshwater oligochaetes they are squarish in cross section, particularly towards the tail end of the body.
Typical habitats
Eiseniella can be common in farmland streams, but we have not found them in the highly polluted sites where smaller tubificid worms can be abundant.
Feeding
They are deposit feeders, collecting fine organic matter from bottom sediments.
Indicator value
Eiseniella are associated with soft bottom streams, but they are not as pollution tolerant as other oligochaetes. This genus has not been assigned tolerance values but the oligochaete worms have low tolerance values of 1 (hard bottom sites) and 3.8 (soft bottom sites).
