A re-examination of the pheretimoid earthworms reported in James et al. (2005), false synonymy between Drawida barwelli (Beddard, 1886) and Drawida beddardi (Rosa, 1890) and comments on recent publications on East and Southeast Asian earthworms
Abstract
A re-examination of the “known species” of the pheretimoid earthworms reported in James et al. (2005) from southern Taiwan results in the discovery of four new species of the genus Amynthas, namely A. chungchi sp. nov., A. kendingensis sp. nov., A. jioupengensis sp. nov. and A. lilis sp. nov. All these new species were wrongly identified as A. corticis (Kinberg, 1867). Additionally, five specimens of A. nanrenensis James, Shih & Chang, 2005 and three specimens of Metaphire houlleti (Perrier, 1872) are found to be misidentified as A. corticis and M. californica (Kinberg, 1867), respectively, by James et al. (2005). Drawida beddardi (Rosa, 1890) is a false synonym of D. barwelli (Beddard, 1886), as the former has simple and straight sperm ducts and spermathecal ducts, while the latter has long and coiled ones. Both Amynthas triastriatus usualis Dong, Jiang, Yuan, Zhao & Qiu, 2020 and Metaphire remanens Jin, Jiang, Li & Qiu, 2022 are nomenclaturally unavailable names, since they were published in electronic journals without ZooBank registration, and there is no explicit statement on the deposition of the type material for each of the taxa. Metaphire guillelmi (Michaelsen, 1895) listed in Nguyen et al. (2016, 2020) is a misidentification and needs to be re-examined. Errors and problems identified in recent publications on East and Southeast Asian earthworms are discussed.
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