Acanthodrilus capensis Beddard, 1885

Plisko, Jadwiga Danuta, 2012, An annotated checklist of the South African Acanthodrilidae (Oligochaeta: Acanthodrilidae: Acanthodrilinae, Benhamiinae), Zootaxa 3458, pp. 4-58 : 50

Acanthodrilus capensis Beddard, 1885 —species dubia

Acanthodrilus capensis Beddard, 1885: 370 .

Acanthodrilus capensis: Beddard: 1895 : 539; Reynolds & Cook 1976: 85. Chilota capensis: Michaelsen 1900: 147 .

nec Chilota capensis in Michaelsen 1913a: 496, 1913b: 49 according to Pickford 1937: 576. Chilota capensis ( Beddard, 1885) : Pickford 1937: 576.

? Chilota (? Parachilota ) capensis ( Beddard, 1885) sp. dubia: Pickford 1937: 576. Chilota knysnanus Michaelsen, 1913 : Pickford 1937: 258 [partim].

Type locality. RSA, EC: ‘Uitenhage, near Port Elizabeth’. The original site of Beddard’s capensis detected by Pickford (1937: 576) in the documentation kept in the SAMC archive is in accordance with the information supplied by Beddard (1884) based on notes obtained from Rev. G.R. Fisk, pointing to acanthodrilid and microchaetid sampling at that time, in the neighbourhood of Port Elizabeth ( Plisko 1999).

Remarks. Lack of the type material and noted discrepancy in description of few important taxonomically characters (shape of prostomium, position of nephridial pores, position of ovaries, seminal vesicles, location of prostates and shape of spermathecae) lead Pickford (1937: 576) to consider capensis as species dubia.

Insufficient description of Acanthodrilus capensis Beddard, 1885 from Uitenhage, near Port Elizabeth (Eastern Cape) lead to confusion and erroneous identification by Michaelsen (1913a, b) a new material from the Western Cape. Pickford (1937: 576) corrected Michaelsen's errors. The new material from ‘Südwestliches Kapland, Moddergat bei Lyndedoch im Stellenbosch-Distrikt’ assigned by Michaelsen (1913a, b) to ‘ capensis ’ was recognized and described by Pickford as a new species, Parachilota michaelsenianus Pickford, 1937 .

Fragments of a specimen from ‘ ex typis A. sclateri sp. inquir.’ are mixed with fragments of Michaelsen material ‘ Chilota knysnanus ’ (also sp. dubia) in the sample ‘ Type 355 SAMC’