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Issue: Vol. 5575 No. 4: 28 Jan. 2025
Type: Article
Published: 2025-01-28
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5575.4.2
Page range: 520-534
Abstract views: 148
PDF downloaded: 7

A new earthworm genus with two new species (Clitellata, Megascolecidae) from the Western Ghats mountain ranges of south-western peninsular India

Advanced Centre of Environmental Studies and Sustainable Development; Mahatma Gandhi University; Priyadarsini Hills; Kot- tayam—686560; Kerala; India
Advanced Centre of Environmental Studies and Sustainable Development; Mahatma Gandhi University; Priyadarsini Hills; Kot- tayam—686560; Kerala; India
School of Biological and Environmental Sciences; Faculty of Basic Sciences; Shoolini University; Solan—173212; Himachal Pradesh; India
Annelida Comarodrilus Kerala Lennoscolex Oligochaeta Peppara Wildlife Sanctuary

Abstract

A new megascolecid earthworm genus, Aiyeriella Narayanan & Julka gen. nov., is established from the Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot of India, with two new species, namely, A. quadritheca Narayanan & Julka, sp. nov., and A. longiprostata Narayanan & Julka, sp. nov. Material of the new genus and species were collected from the three southernmost districts of Kerala state, in the south-western portion of peninsular India. The present new genus can be distinguished from other related Indomalayan megascolecid genera by the presence of combined male and prostatic pores paired in seminal grooves on segment 18, with a single well-developed oesophageal gizzard in segment 5, penial setae, calciferous glands, intestinal caeca, and typhlosole absent, meronephric throughout the body, 10–14 in transverse bands of micromeronephridia behind clitellum and prostates tubuloracemose, paired, elongated, and strap-shaped.

 

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