Drawida ghilarovi Gates, 1969

Blakemore, Robert J., Lee, Seunghan & Seo, Hong-Yul, 2014, Reports of Drawida (Oligochaeta: Moniligastridae) from far East Asia, Journal of Species Research 3 (2), pp. 127-166 : 148

18. Drawida ghilarovi Gates, 1969 species-complex

(stat. nov.)

Drawida ghilarovi Gates, 1969: 674 . [Siberia. Types in Moscow: 37-38].

Drawida ghilarovi : Ganin, 2013.

Distribution. Siberia in South Primorye and Khabarovsk neighborhood. Described from southern slopes and spurs of the Sikhote-Alin Mountains, near Ussuriysk and in the Black Mountains. Its wider description by Ganin (2013) appears to show several distinct morphs/(sub-)species with incursion into China and North Korean border.

Description. [From Gates’ 1969 original, Russian Red Data Book (Anon., 2014 ‾ http://hunt.rin.ru/html/article 2319-1.html) and http://www.zooclub.ru/bezp/35.shtml]: Body a greenish or dark metallic bluish colour. Length 100-142 mm, width 6 mm. Segments 173-210. Prolobous. Lumbricine. GMs distantly paired discs, usually in bc to cd or sometimes even on the side of d, in 5-13. Clitellum ring-shaped 9-15. Spermathecal pores in 7/8. Male pores in 10/11 medio-lateral in bc, superficial without copulatory organ (i.e., no penes). Female pores in 11/12. Spermatheca with long coiled duct to exit (i.e., no spermathecal atria). Vas deferens long and coiled in 9-10 to hemispherical, sessile prostates. Ovaries in 11 with long egg sacs. Gizzards four of in 13-16. Nephridia vesiculate.

Remarks. A. species-complex is suggested by its wide distribution and further refinement is required in relation to several similar regional congeners, especially those with four gizzards in 13-16, such as D. tairaensis , D. guryeensis Hong, 2002 , D. csuzdii and D. jeombongsan spp. nov. although several of these differ in having penes and arrangement of GMs. Gates compared it to Asian species also lacking spermathecal atria, viz. D. hattamimizu , D. nemora and D. ofunatoensis , the last two similarly lacking penes. Its genetic profile, on topotypes, would be most useful for comparison. Occurring as a litter species or subsoil geophage in forest soils, meadow-swamp and in peat to depths of 1 m (Ganin, 1023), its cold tolerance is found to be ‾ 16 C in worms to ‾ 20 C for cocoons ( Berman et al., 2010). Nematode parasites are also report- ed ( Ivanova et al., 2014) uniquely for two Drawida ghilarovi morphs supporting the current suggestion of separate species rather than just morphs or ecotypes.