A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON GUT MICROFLORA OF EARTHWORMS EUDRILUS EUGENIAE AND EISENIA FETIDA.

In the present study attempt was made to prepare vermicompost from the leaf materials such as Gliricidia sepium Jacq, Leucaena leucocephala (Lam.) De Wit and Cassia auriculata Linn using the earthworms, Eudrilus eugeniae (Kinberg) and Eisenia fetida (Savigny) along with cowdung in four different treatments. Fortnightly the analyses (0, 15, 30, 45 and 60 d) were done to evaluate the colony forming units (CFU) of bacteria, fungi and actinimycets in earthworm guts (fore, mid and hind gut). The results showed that the higher load of CFU of bacteria (105±1.15), fungi (100.33±1.15) and actinomycetes (111.00±1.00) were observed in the hind gut of E.eugeniae on 60 d in vermicompost prepared using C.auriculata + L.leucocephala + Cowdung mixture with E.eugeniae than in fore [bacteria (95.00±2.00), fungi (91.00±1.00) and actinomycetes (100.67±0.58)] and mid guts [bacteria (100.00±1.00), fungi (96.00±1.00) and actinomycetes (105.67±1.15)] and in other treatments.