Oligochæta from Windermere and the Lake District

First time in Italy. Is the elusive aquatic megadrile Sparganophilus Benham, 1892 (Annelida, Clitellata) accelerating its dispersal in Europe?

“…Interestingly, the same studies suggest the two families to belong to a relict group sister to all other Crassiclitellata (James and Davidson, 2012). This archaic relationship contrasts with former hypotheses of Sparganophilus being closely related to Glossoscolecidae (Benham, 1892;Michaelsen, 1918;Cernosvitov, 1945;Jamieson, 1971) or to Lumbricidae (Sims, 1980, Reynolds andCook, 1993), proposing instead the common ancestor of the Crassiclitellata clade as common ancestor with either of these families (James and Davidson, 2012).…”

“…Cernosvitov (1945) reported it to favour localities in Windermere with a considerable amount of organic substratum, and to occur under medium-sized stones, but more abundant in sand among the roots of Littorella, and even more in black, firm sulphide-smelling mud among the roots of Phragmites. Tétry (1934) found her worms in apparently bare, muddy, very moist sand, either submerged or thinly covered with water, on the banks of river Moselle.…”

“…The occurrence of the family outside of America is limited to few records of S. tamesis in northern and central European countries: England (both in the wild and in aquatic gardens: River Thames, Windermere Lake, Cheshire Meres, Kew Gardens, Pencarrow, Greenford; Benham, 1892;Friend, 1911Friend, , 1921 as Helodrilus elongatus, then Sparganophilus elongatus; Cernosvitov, 1945;Jamieson, 1971;Sherlock and Carpenter, 2009); France (River Moselle near Nancy; Tétry, 1934 as Pelodrilus cuenoti); Switzerland (Lake Lèman in Geneva; Zicsi and Vaucher, 1987;Bouché and Qiu, 1998 as Sparganophilus langi); and Germany (River Alster in Hamburg; Graefe and Beylich, 2011) (Fig. 1).…”