Dendrobaena cognettii cognettii (Michaelsen, 1903)

Rota, Emilia, Schembri, Patrick J. & Omodeo, Pietro, 2017, Earthworms of Malta (Annelida: Clitellata: Acanthodrilidae, Hormogastridae, Lumbricidae), Zootaxa 4311 (2), pp. 287-291 : 289

Dendrobaena cognettii cognettii (Michaelsen, 1903)

St. 7, 2 ad.

New record. Woodland species; in the south of Italy this is a typical inhabitant of Mediterranean holm oak ( Q. ilex ) forests ( Rota et al. 2014). Records from Sicily are confined to the eastern provinces of Siracusa ( Omodeo 1964) and Messina (Eolie Islands, Lipari, Chiesavecchia, 350 m, 12.03.1986, M.G. Filippucci leg., unpubl. datum). Present all along the northern Mediterranean, including the Balearic Islands (unpubl. datum, Table 1), absent from the Near East and from the Maghreb. In the latter region it is replaced throughout by the equally minute D. lusitana Graff, 1957 ( Omodeo et al. 2003). In the Canaries the two species coexist ( Omodeo & Rota 2008).