You may be surprised to learn there are 26 British species of earthworm that are of a variety of sizes, the largest is 30cm and the smallest is around 6cm long, and they range in colours from a dark red to pale a yellow/green. The different types of earthworm are not easy to tell apart - identifying them requires a magnifying glass, an eye for detail and a lot of patience! However, one group ‘the litter dwellers’ are the most distinctive, living either in the leaf litter, at the soil surface or within compost heaps; they have dark red or brown colouring and in the case of the Tiger worm a set of dapper stripes.