Metaphire dorsomultitheca Nguyen & Nguyen, 2015

Nguyen, Tung T., Lam, Dang H. & Nguyen, Anh D., 2023, A revision of the Metaphire peguana species-group (Oligochaeta: Megascolecidae) from Vietnam, Zootaxa 5255 (1), pp. 113-135 : 129-130

Metaphire dorsomultitheca Nguyen & Nguyen, 2015

( Figure 11, Table 3)

Metaphire dorsomultitheca Nguyen et al. 2015: 465 , fig. 2; Nguyen et al. 2016: 56, 2021c: 105.

Pheretima sp. 15 – Nguyen 2013: 87, 2014: 112.

Type locality. Vietnam (An Giang: Sam mountain ) ( Nguyen et al. 2015)

Type material. Laboratory of Zoology , Department of Biology, Can Tho University (EW.025.h01, EW.025. p02), Vietnam .

Diagnosis. Body cylindrical, small-medium size, length 76–111 mm, diameter 2.9–3.6 mm, segments 88–120. Prostomium epilobous. First dorsal pore at 12/13. Spermathecal pores numerous in dorsal intersegments 7/8/9, polythecate. Male pores located inside copulatory pouches in xviii. Genital markings invisible outside, but two pairs opened on the front and back walls of the copulatory pouches, respectively. Septum 10/11 present only ventrally. Intestinal caeca simple. Holandric, testis sacs separated. Accessory glands coelomic, strongly covered by muscularwalled bursae in 17/18 and 18/19.

Habitat. The species was usually found in the depth of 0–5 cm in the soils under small trees and shrubs on mountain peaks ( Nguyen et al. 2015).

Distribution. Known only in Vietnam (An Giang: Sam, Cam, and Co To mountains) ( Nguyen et al. 2015) ( Fig. 3).

Remarks. There are no significant differences between individuals except the number of spermathecae. The K2P intraspecific genetic distance was 0.7%±0.3%. The genetic distance between M. dorsomultitheca and other Metaphire species was from 14.9%±1.6% (with M. bahli (I)) to 21.8%±2.0 (with M. grandiverticulata ) ( Table 4).