Four new earthworm species of the genus Amynthas (Oligochaeta: Megascolecidae) from Kinmen, Taiwan

Abstract

Four new species of terrestrial earthworms belonging to the genus Amynthas were collected on the islands of Kinmen and Lieyu, Taiwan from March to November, 2008. They are Amynthas kinmenensis sp. nov., Amynthas wuhumontis sp. nov., Amynthas wujhouensis sp. nov., and Amynthas taiwumontis sp. nov. Amynthas kinmenensis sp. nov. is quadrithecal and is the most abundant earthworm widely distributed on the main island of Kinmen. It has numerous small genital papillae and is closely related to Amynthas polyglandularis (Tsai, 1964) from northern Taiwan. Amynthas wuhumontis sp. nov. is sexthecal and is distributed only in areas around Mt. Wuhu and Mt. Taiwu in east Kinmen. It has male pores each surrounded by three genital papillae: one anterior, one posterior and one medial. Amynthas wujhouensis sp. nov. and Amynthas taiwumontis sp. nov. are octothecal. The former has a sporadic distribution in Kinmen while the latter was only found in areas around Mt. Taiwu. Amynthas wujhouensis sp. nov. has a pair of large genital papillae closely adjacent to the crescent or semicircular shaped male porophores in XVIII. Amynthas taiwumontis sp. nov. has simple male pore structure and no genital papillae or genital markings. DNA barcodes (the 5' end sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 gene) from type specimens and other materials of the first three species are also reported.

Megascolex (Perichaeta) diffringens Baird, 1869 and Pheretima pingi Stephenson, 1925 types compared to the Amynthas corticis (Kinberg, 1867) and A. carnosus (Goto & Hatai, 1899) species-groups (Oligochaeta: Megadrilacea: Megascolecidae)

“…Another recently described taxon, Amynthas taiwumontis Shen et al (2013) was compared by those authors to A. fornicatus. However its description appears to comply with A. carnosus having Kobayashi's spermathecal pores type I or II and male pores type I, as redescribed by Blakemore (2012a) (this overlooked despite my sending a copy to Dr Huei-Ping Shen) and thus this name too is another probable inclusion in the long synonym list of A. carnosus presented in the Abstract above.…”

Asian pheretimoid earthworms in North America north of Mexico: An illustrated key to the genera Amynthas, Metaphire, Pithemera, and Polypheretima (Clitellata: Megascolecidae)

“…Previously in a single genus Pheretima sensu lato, this group currently contains more than 1,000 species in 14 genera James 2004;Blakemore 2010b). The pheretimoids are one of the most active fields of earthworm diversity research (Chang & Chen 2004James 2004James , 2005James , 2009Chang et al 2008Chang et al , 2014Tsai et al 2009Tsai et al , 2010Blakemore 2010a, b;Hong & James 2011Shen et al 2013Shen et al , 2014, with four new genera described in the last decade. Species from five genera, Amynthas, Metaphire, Pheretima, Pithemera and Polypheretima, have been reported as invasive in temperate and tropical regions worldwide Easton 1981;Gates 1982;Chang et al 2009a;.…”

Biogeography meets taxonomy: Distribution-based inferences on the accuracy of identification and synonymization of East Asian earthworms

“…The synonymies of the four species, Amynthas monsoonus James et al, 2005 from tropical southern Taiwan, Amynthas fuscus Qiu & Sun, 2012 from Hainan Island, southern China, Amynthas taiwumontis Shen et al, 2013 from Kinmen, southwest of Matsu, and Amynthas penpuensis Shen et al, 2003 from Taiwan, with A. carnosus byBlakemore (2013a, b, c) are therefore questionable. In fact, all the four species are morphologically distinguishable from A. carnosus: A. monsoonus has small prostate gland and diverticulum much longer than ampulla(James et al 2005) while A. carnosus has large prostate gland and short diverticulum(Goto & Hatai 1899;Kobayashi 1936a); A. fuscus has coiled diverticulum(Sun et al 2012) while that of A. carnosus is simple and straight(Goto & Hatai 1899;Kobayashi 1936a); A. taiwumontis has long diverticulum and much higher setal number with approximately 70-100 setae per segment(Shen et al 2013) whereas A. carnosus has short diverticulum and lower setal number about 30-60 setae per segment(Kobayashi 1936a); A. penpuensis has large seminal vesicle and first dorsal pore in 5/6 or 6/7(Shen et al 2003b) whereas A. carnosus has small seminal vesicle and first dorsal pore in 12/13 or 13/14…”