Glyphidrilus Horst, 1889

Shen, Huei-Ping & Yeo, Darren C. J., 2005, Terrestrial Earthworms (Oligochaeta) From Singapore, Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 53 (1), pp. 13-33 : 16

Glyphidrilus Horst

Remarks. – Gates (1972) stated that glyphidrile earthworms dwell in habitats saturated with fresh water, and no species of Glyphidrilus is known to be anthropochorous. Only 16 nominal species and one anonymous species, Glyphidrilus sp. ( Gates, 1938), have been reported for this genus. All the Glyphidrilus species are found in South or Southeast Asia except for one species in Africa. Of these, Glyphidrilus malayanus ( Michaelsen, 1902) and the anonymous Glyphidrilus sp. ( Gates, 1938) are from the Malay Peninsula, and Glyphidrilus horsti ( Stephenson, 1930) is from Pulau Berhala, Straits of Malacca.

Because the internal characters of the Glyphidrilus species tend to be conservative, locations of wings and clitellum, and position and arrangement of genital papillae are characters often used for species distinction ( Michaelsen, 1910; Gates, 1958). However, Gates (1972) regarded external genital characters as being subject to considerable individual variation so that their systematic usefulness is doubtful, and considered that more attention should be paid to somatic anatomy. Although Gates (1972) adopted digestive and vascular systems as the important diagnostic characters, the positions of genital markings and wings remained as important characters for species identification.

The Glyphidrilus specimens from Peninsular Malaysia in the ZRC (ZRC 1974.12.2.51-62), previously described by Gates (1938) as Glyphidrilus sp. , are identified as a new species in this study. The present study also includes one new species, one new record, and four unidentifiable aclitellate specimens of Glyphidrilus from Singapore.