Preliminary survey of freshwater Oligochaeta from selected districts in Tamil Nadu (India)

Abstract

A qualitative survey of freshwater Oligochaeta was conducted in selected districts of Tamil Nadu, India, from October 2013 to June 2015. Thirteen taxa were recorded from a total of 1,915 specimens of freshwater Oligochaeta examined from various random samples. Out of the 13 taxa 10 were identified to the species level, two were identified to genus level and one only to subfamily level. These provided the first reports of

<p class="HeadingRunIn"><strong>Preliminary report on freshwater oligochaetes from some districts of Tamil Nadu (India), along with DNA barcode sequence of a commercially important oligochaete in Chennai</strong></p>

“…Thirteen species of aquatic Oligochaeta are known from Chennai, 4 from Thiruvallur, 4 from Kanchipuram, 7 from Villuppuram and 15 from Nilgiris districts of Tamil Nadu. About 34 species of aquatic Oligochaeta have been reported from Tamil Nadu by Srinivasan et al 2016. Out of the 5 naidids reported in the present study Dero dorsalis constitute the first report for Kanchipuram district.…”

“…Random sampling was done from October 2015 to June 2016, following the procedure of Srinivasan et al (2016). Oligochaetes collected and separated from various aquatic vegetation and sediment samples were transferred into vials containing 10% formalin for preservation and storage.…”

“…Studies on aquatic Oligochaeta from Tamil Nadu are scanty (Srinivasan et al 2016). DNA barcode sequences of this group are absolutely lacking from this region, hence the objectives of this work are to 1) obtain a DNA barcode sequence of the commercially important freshwater oligochaete Limnodrilus hoffmeisteri and 2) to report on the diversity of aquatic Oligochaeta from some water bodies of Thiruvallur, Chennai, Kanchipuram, Villuppuram and Nilgiris districts of Tamil Nadu.…”