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First record of Parvidrilidae (Annelida, Oligochaeta) in Europe with a description of a new species (Parvidrilus spelaeus sp. nov.) and comments on the family and its phyletic relationships

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2002

Enrique Martínez-Ansemil
Affiliation:
Departamento de Bioloxía Animal, Bioloxía Vexetal e Ecoloxía, Facultade de Ciencias, Universidade da Coruña, Campus da Zapateira s/n, E-15071 A Coruña, Spain. E-mail: [email protected]
Beatrice Sambugar
Affiliation:
Museo Civico di Storia Naturale, Lungadige Porta Vittoria 9, I-37126 Verona, Italy
Narcisse Giani
Affiliation:
Centre d'Ecologie des Systèmes Aquatiques Continentaux, UMR C5576 CNRS, Université Paul Sabatier, 118 route de Narbonne, F-31062 Toulouse Cedex, France
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Abstract

A new species of the oligochaete family Parvidrilidae Erséus, 1999 is described from several subterranean waterbodies of southern Europe. A comparison with the type species suggests that the so called ‘genital body’ and ‘copulatory organ’ of the latter can be interpreted as the atrium and spermathecae, respectively. A critical analysis of the most important diagnostic features known is made to increase understanding of the real position of the Parvidrilidae in a natural system within the Oligochaeta. The parvidrilids seem to be closely related to the Phreodrilidae. Waiting for the results of molecular and ultrastructural analyses, and considering the dorsal crotchets ‘buried’ in the body wall as an autapomorphy for the phreodrilids, the rank of family for the parvidrilids is maintained on the basis of the three following autapomorphies: the location of the setae in a marked posterior position within the segments; the lateral development of the clitellum, with large clitellar cells in relation to the body diameter; the singular glandular pouches present in the mid-dorsal line of the mesosomial segments.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
2002 The Zoological Society of London

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