Earthworm occurrence dataset extracted from Russian-language literature.

Background: Earthworms are one of the most important components of temperate ecosystems and groups of soil animals globally, but data on their distribution around the world are still incomplete and uneven. Northern Eurasia is a region for which available data on earthworm distribution is extremely poor. At the same time, generations of Soviet and Russian researchers have performed extensive research and accumulated a large amount of data on the distribution of earthworms in this vast region. Most of this information was published in Russian, not digitised and, therefore, hardly accessible to researchers. Our dataset fills this gap and provides occurrence data extracted from 159 literature sources in Russian published between 1868 and 2022. The dataset contains 5,304 occurrences of 109 species and 14 subspecies. The collected data cover the territory of 27 countries.

New information: The dataset extends the data available through GBIF.org on earthworm distribution in Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine. For Transcaucasia and Central Asia countries, our resource has become the main GBIF source on earthworm diversity distribution. On a global scale, our dataset contributes to filling gaps in biodiversity, which facilitates more accurate estimates of the response of biodiversity to global climate change as well as the spreading of invasive species.