Earthworms (Oligochaeta) from islands of the south-western Pacific, and a note on two species from Papua New Guinea

Abstract

Earthworms collected from the southwestern Pacific islands of Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, Niue, and the Kermadecs on the 1980 expedition of the Soviet Research Ship Kallisto, and by other expeditions and surveys, are discussed. Nineteen species are listed: 2 are new, 12 are new records for the area, and 6 are new records for individual islands. The 2 new species are Polypheretima neglecta n. sp. and Metapheretima sergei n. sp. The littoral species of the genus Pontodrilus are reviewed and are considered to be synonymous. The type species of the genus Drawida is redescribed. Polypheretima tamarae n. sp. is described from Papua New Guinea. The origin of the earthworm fauna of the south-western Pacific is discussed and a key to the earthworms recorded from the south-western Pacific is provided.Details of the nephridial systems of 2 species of Polypheretima from Papua New Guinea are given in an appendix.

The Terrestrial Bioluminescent Animals of Japan

“…The luminescence in this littoral earthworm was first discovered at Tomioka, Yokohama in Japan. At that time, this species was identified as P. matsushimensis (Kanda, 1938), but it was later reduced to a synonym of P. litoralis (Easton, 1984). The mucus of M. phosphoreus and P. litoralis emits a faint yellowish-green luminescence, which is the coelomic fluid discharged from mouth, anus and/or body wall upon mechanical, chemical or electrical stimuli (Kanda, 1938;Haneda and Kumagai, 1939;Gates, 1972;Herring, 1978;Wampler, 1982).…”

“…8G, H) is distributed along the tidal line in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans, including the shorelines in Japan (Yamaguchi, 1953;Okada, 1965;Easton, 1980;Blakemore, 2003) (Table 1). The body size is 32-120 mm long and 2-4 mm wide (Easton, 1984). We call it "Iso-Mimizu" in Japanese, which means shore-earthworm.…”

“…The mechanism of earthworm luminescence was best studied in the North American earthworm Diplocardia longa, wherein the luciferin was identified as N-isovaleryl-3-aminopropanal (Ohtsuka et al, 1976), the luciferase was purified as 300 kDa heterotrimeric metalloprotein containing Cu 2+ (Bellisario and Cormier, 1971;Bellisario et al, 1972), and the luminescence was stimulated by hydrogen peroxide (Bellisario and Cormier, 1971;Bellisario et al, 1972). The mechanisms of luminescence in M. phosphoreus and P. bermudensis (= Pontodrilus litoralis; Easton, 1984) were suggested to be similar to that of D. longa, on the grounds that their luminescence was stimulated by hydrogen peroxide, the luciferin of D. longa, and the luciferase of D. longa (Wampler and Jamieson, 1980;Wampler, 1982). Emission maxima of the luminescent reaction in vitro for M. phosphoreus and P. bermudensis were 538 nm and 540 nm, respectively (Wampler, 1982;Wampler andJamieson, 1980, 1986).…”

Asian Invasive Earthworms of the GenusAmynthasKinberg in Vermont

“…Remarks: Michaelsen (1910Michaelsen ( : 48-52, 1931: 523) established subspecies for this taxon, Drawida japonica siemsseni (Michaelsen, 1910) from Fuchow, China, and Drawida japonica bahamensis (Beddard, 1893) that was subsequently placed, at least by Easton (1984), in synonymy of Drawida barwelli (Beddard, 1886). Kobayashi (1940) had proposed a dispersal of D. japonica from China to Japan, possibly via Taiwan.…”

“…These latter three families have an acanthodriline arrangement of male pores and nephridia that are either holoic, in Acanthodrilidae, or meroic in Octochaetidae and Exxidae, with Exxidae distinguished by its non-tubular prostates. In view of the apparent confusion and dissenting opinions regarding the current classification of Japanese pheretimoids, each genus is summarized below from the works of Sims & Easton (1972), and Easton (1979Easton ( , 1982Easton ( , 1984, followed by Japanese species lists. The first two genera, Pontodrilus and Perionyx, are relatively primitive in having plesiomorphic holoic nephridia and are not pheretimoids.…”