Four new earthworm species of the genus Amynthas Kinberg (Oligochaeta: Megascolecidae) from the island of Hainan and Guangdong Province, China

Abstract

This paper describes four new species of morrisi-group earthworms from Hainan and Guangdong Provinces, China: Amynthas instabilis sp. nov, Amynthas dilatatus sp. nov, Amynthas infuscuatus sp. nov. and Amynthas qiongzhongensis sp. nov. All four species have two pairs of spermathecal pores in 5/6–6/7; male pores in XVIII, 0.33 circumference ventrally apart, each on the top of a slightly raised porophore, surrounded by several tiny genital papillae, in a pulvinate pad with three to six circular folds. Characters of the spermathecae, prostate glands and other anatomical features easily distinguish the new species from earthworms previously reported from the morrisi-group.

http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:545E9152-C826-44A2-949E-402434D8493D.

Keywords:

• morrisi-group
• new species
• genetic distances
• cytochrome oxidase subunit I gene
• barcode

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Science Foundation of China grant No. 31172360 and No. 31272265. We are grateful to Professor Marcel Bouché (Laboratoire de Zooecologie du sol, Montpellier, France), Professor Daniel Cluzeau (Université de Rennes, France), Dr Jianxiong Li (Guangdong Entomological Institute), Professor Xingliang Wu and Mrs Jingxia Zhong (Hainan University), Dr Weixin Zhang (South China Botanical Garden), Yongzhi Guo, Xiande Lei and Wenkun Zhang for their assistance with the field work. We thank the reviewers of the manuscript for many useful suggestions and corrections.