New species of the earthworm genus Anisochaeta (Oligochaeta: Megascolecidae) from New South Wales

Abstract

The number of Anisochaeta from New South Wales is more than doubled to 50 species in the present account. Twenty-seven species are newly described, one of which is tentatively attributed to the dubious genus Propheretima. A checklist is presented with the distributions of the twenty-three previously described Anisochaeta from NSW that were variously attributed to the genera Perichaeta, Megascolex, and Spenceriella. One species, Megascolex crateroides Boardman, 1943, is herein synonymized with Anisochaeta gracilis (Fletcher, 1886b). A replacement name, Anisochaeta trichaeta, is proposed for the homonym of the Victorian Trichaeta australis Spencer, 1900. A key is provided for currently known NSW species. The generic definition of Anisochaeta is modified to accommodate forms with the newly discovered vesiculate nephridial condition. Several of the new species have setae between the male pores, further reducing the distinctiveness of Propheretima from the prior genus Spenceriella, which is itself currently synonymized under Anisochaeta.

Native earthworms (Oligochaeta) from southeastern Australia, with the description of fifteen new species

“…Methods and terminology are similar to those in Blakemore (2000). Segments are counted from the anterior in Arabic numerals (female pores are on 14 and male pores on 18 in megascolecids, unless counts are reduced by suppression of anterior segments); intersegments are designated by a slash (e.g., 1/2); variations are shown by a comma and range by a dash (e.g., 3,4-5).…”

“…Further site and soil survey details can be obtained from Dr Phil Ryan. Anisochaeta rava and A. rubeospina have recently been described from this locality by Blakemore (2000). Heteroporodrilus Jamieson, 1970: 106-109;Blakemore, 1994b: 20- Included species.…”

“…AM W24416-24417, ANIC RB.98.2.9-10) were found sympatrically with P. barringtoni in material collected by Ed Easton from Junction Holes, Barrington Tops. Also found in the Easton collection from the vicinity of Barrington Tops were an unidentifiable, damaged plutelloid (W24418); Anisochaeta erica and A. palustris, both described by Blakemore (2000); several other Anisochaeta spp. that are currently undescribed; plus a specimen (W20775) labelled "Moniligastridae" that is actually a tubificid (pers.…”

“…Australian native earthworms belong to the Acanthodrilidae, a relatively primitive family now predominantly confined to the northerly regions (Blakemore, 1997b), and the Megascolecidae which is both more derived and more widespread. This paper considers various megascolecid genera from the southeastern states, especially New South Wales, complementing a paper (Blakemore, 2000) that dealt only with the genus Anisochaeta. The methodology employed in both these studies is similar as much of the material examined was from Easton's 1983 NSW Collection at the Australian Museum, Sydney.…”

Four new terrestrial earthworm species from the northeast Thailand (Oligochaeta, Megascolecidae)

“…The aelianus species group consists of more than 60 species ( Sims and Easton 1972 ; Tsai et al 1999 , 2010 ; Shen et al 2003 ; James et al 2005 ; Blakemore 2011 ; Bantaowong et al 2014 ). In the following, we compared the new species with regional species in the aelianus species group: A.…”