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The Lumbricidae are a family of earthworms. About 33 lumbricid species have become naturalized around the world, but the bulk of the species are in the Holarctic region: from Canada and the United States and throughout Eurasia to Japan. An enigmatic species in Tasmania is Eophila eti. Currently, 670 valid species and subspecies in about 42 genera are recognized. This family includes the majority of earthworm species well known to Europeans.
Oligochaeta is a subclass of animals in the phylum Annelida, which is made up of many types of aquatic and terrestrial worms, including all of the various earthworms. Specifically, oligochaetes comprise the terrestrial megadrile earthworms, and freshwater or semiterrestrial microdrile forms, including the tubificids, pot worms and ice worms (Enchytraeidae), blackworms (Lumbriculidae) and several interstitial marine worms.
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Amynthas mekongianus, the Mekong worm or Mekong giant earthworm, previously known as Megascolex mekongianus, is a species of earthworm in the family Megascolecidae. It is native to the vicinity of the River Mekong in southeastern Asia and may have more than 500 segments and grow to a length of 2.9 m (10 ft).
Megascolecidae earthworm Amynthas japonicus was a Japanese native probably collected from Nagasaki in the 1820s. It was one of three native earthworms featured in Dr P.F.B. von Siebold’s extensive collection and recorded as one of Japan’s earliest pheretimoid species. It is now deemed extinct given that a 2018 Nagasaki expedition and earlier 1930s reports failed to locate it. It is featured on The Recently Extinct Plants and Animals Database.
References
- ↑ Blakemore, R.J. (2006). "Checklist of New Zealand earthworms updated from Lee (1959)" (PDF). Annelida Website.
- ↑ Blakemore, R.J. (2012). "On Schmarda's lost earthworm and some newly found New Zealand species". Journal of Species Research 1(2): 105-132.
- ↑ Blakemore, R.J. (2014). "Miscellaneous Earthworm types in British Museum of Natural History, London" (PDF). Opuscula Zoologica 45(2): 119-155.
- 1 2 Lee, K. E. (1959). The earthworm fauna of New Zealand. Wellington: NZ Department of Scientific & Industrial Research.
- ↑ Blakemore, R.J. (2017). "Anisochaeta gigantea". IUCN Redlist.
