Global species delimitation of the cosmopolitan marine littoral earthworm Pontodrilus litoralis (Grube, 1855).

The marine littoral earthworm Pontodrilus litoralis (Grube, 1855) is widely distributed and is reported as a single species. This study utilized an integrative taxonomic approach based upon morphological examination, phylogenetic reconstruction, and molecular species delimitation, to test whether the taxon is a single species or a species complex. For this, a total of 114 P.

Integrative taxonomy of a new species of Rhyacodrilus (Annelida: Clitellata: Rhyacodrilinae) from Tibet Plateau rivers, with a preliminary assessment of its phylogenetic position.

A new Qinghai-Tibet Plateau species, Rhyacodrilus tanggulaensis Jiang & Cui sp. nov. (Annelida, Clitellata, Naididae, Rhyacodrilinae), is described, and its phylogenetic relationships within the genus is assessed on the basis of both mitochondrial (16S rDNA, COⅠ gene) and nuclear (ITS2) markers.

Cryptic carnivores: Intercontinental sampling reveals extensive novel diversity in a genus of freshwater annelids.

Freshwater annelids are globally widespread in aquatic ecosystems, but their diversity is severely underestimated. Obvious morphological features to define taxa are sparse, and molecular phylogenetic analyses regularly discover cryptic diversity within taxa. Despite considerable phylogenetic work on certain clades, many groups of freshwater annelids remain poorly understood.

Testing species hypotheses for Fridericia magna, an enchytraeid worm (Annelida: Clitellata) with great mitochondrial variation.

Background: Deep mitochondrial divergences were observed in Scandinavian populations of the terrestrial to semi-aquatic annelid Fridericia magna (Clitellata: Enchytraeidae). This raised the need for testing whether the taxon is a single species or a complex of cryptic species.

Results: A total of 62 specimens from 38 localities were included in the study, 44 of which were used for species delimitation.

Broad geographic sampling and DNA barcoding do not support the presence of Helobdella stagnalis (Linnaeus, 1758) (Clitellata: Glossiphoniidae) in North America.

The description of Helobdella stagnalis (Linnaeus, 1758) has emphasized the presence of a nuchal, chitinous scute located on the dorsal surface in the first third of the body as the diagnostic character for the species. Historically, identifications of species of Helobdella have relied heavily on this character and, as a result, Helobdella stagnalis has been reported from an inordinately broad geographic range, including Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, and South America. In addition to a few earlier investigations, a recent analysis showed that great genetic distances (orders of magnitude greater than previous estimations of intraspecific divergence in leeches) are present between scute-bearing specimens identified as H.

Phylogenomic Analysis of a Putative Missing Link Sparks Reinterpretation of Leech Evolution.

Leeches (Hirudinida) comprise a charismatic, yet often maligned group of organisms. Despite their ecological, economic, and medical importance, a general consensus on the phylogenetic relationships of major hirudinidan lineages is lacking. This absence of a consistent, robust phylogeny of early-diverging lineages has hindered our understanding of the underlying processes that enabled evolutionary diversification of this clade.

Na /K -ATPase gene duplications in clitellate annelids are associated with freshwater colonization.

Major habitat transitions, such as those from marine to freshwater habitats or from aquatic to terrestrial habitats, have occurred infrequently in animal evolution and may represent a barrier to diversification. Identifying genomic events associated with these transitions can help us better understand mechanisms that allow animals to cross these barriers and diversify in new habitats. Study of the Capitella telata and Helobdella robusta genomes allows examination of one such habitat transition (marine to freshwater) in Annelida.

A new Scandinavian Chamaedrilus species (Clitellata: Enchytraeidae), with additional notes on others.

Chamaedrilus (earlier referred to as Cognettia) is a well-known genus of terrestrial and limnic enchytraeids, currently with 19 known species in the world. Some of its species are morphologically cryptic and can only be identified using genetic (DNA) information. Many of them reproduce asexually, and the prevalence of sexual mature individuals is generally low in the populations.

Green light to an integrative view of Microscolex phosphoreus (Dugès, 1837) (Annelida: Clitellata: Acanthodrilidae).

The small synanthropic and peregrine earthworm Microscolex phosphoreus (Dugès, 1837) is reported for the first time from Siberia. Morphological and DNA barcode (COI) analyses of this and widely separate samples worldwide demonstrate that, as currently identified, M. phosphoreus is a heterogeneous taxon, with divergent lineages occurring often in the same locality and hardly providing geographically structured genetic signals.

Two new European species of the marine genus Tubificoides (Annelida: Clitellata: Naididae) with notes on the morphology of T. pseudogaster (Dahl, 1960).

Two new species of Tubificoides (subfamily Tubificinae), T. charlotteae n. sp.

Acquisition of a Novel Sulfur-Oxidizing Symbiont in the Gutless Marine Worm Inanidrilus exumae.

Gutless phallodrilines are marine annelid worms without a mouth or gut, which live in an obligate association with multiple bacterial endosymbionts that supply them with nutrition. In this study, we discovered an unusual symbiont community in the gutless phallodriline that differs markedly from the microbiomes of all 22 of the other host species examined. Comparative 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis and fluorescence hybridization revealed that harbors cooccurring gamma-, alpha-, and deltaproteobacterial symbionts, while all other known host species harbor gamma- and either alpha- or deltaproteobacterial symbionts.

New specific primers for amplification of the Internal Transcribed Spacer region in Clitellata (Annelida).

Nuclear molecular evidence, for example, the rapidly evolving Internal Transcribed Spacer region (ITS), integrated with maternally inherited (mitochondrial) COI barcodes, has provided new insights into the diversity of clitellate annelids. PCR amplification and sequencing of ITS, however, are often hampered by poor specificity of primers used. Therefore, new clitellate-specific primers for amplifying the whole ITS region (ITS: 29F/1084R) and a part of it (ITS2: 606F/1082R) were developed on the basis of a collection of previously published ITS sequences with flanking rDNA coding regions.

Taxonomy of North European (Clitellata, Enchytraeidae).

is a genus of clitellate worms with about 80 described species that inhabit marine and limnic habitats. This study follows a recent analysis of the phylogeny of the genus based on 24 species of collected mainly in Norway and Sweden. We provide the illustrated taxonomic descriptions of all these species and describe two of them as new; and Using the recent phylogeny, we informally divide into five distinct morphological groups, into which we also tentatively place the species not included in this study.

Molecular data reveal a tropical freshwater origin of Naidinae (Annelida, Clitellata, Naididae).

The phylogenetic relationships within Naidinae (Annelida, Clitellata, Naididae) were investigated, using six molecular markers, both mitochondrial (12S rDNA, 16S rDNA, the COI gene) and nuclear (18S rDNA, 28S rDNA, the ITS region). Thirty-seven nominal species, representing 16 of the 22 genera recognized in the subfamily, were included, and the Nais communis/variabilis species complex was represented by six different morphotypes. Ten other species of Naididae were selected as outgroups.

Phylogenomic analyses of Crassiclitellata support major Northern and Southern Hemisphere clades and a Pangaean origin for earthworms.

Background: Earthworms (Crassiclitellata) are a diverse group of annelids of substantial ecological and economic importance. Earthworms are primarily terrestrial infaunal animals, and as such are probably rather poor natural dispersers. Therefore, the near global distribution of earthworms reflects an old and likely complex evolutionary history.

Multi-locus phylogenetic analysis of the genus Limnodrilus (Annelida: Clitellata: Naididae).

Limnodrilus species are annelid worms distributed worldwide in various freshwater sediments. The systematics of Limnodrilus has chiefly been based on morphology, but the genus has not been subject to any closer phylogenetic studies over the past two decades. To reconstruct the evolutionary history of Limnodrilus, and to assess the monophyly of this genus and its systematic position within the subfamily Tubificinae (Annelida: Clitellata: Naididae), 45 Limnodrilus specimens, representing 19 species, and 35 other naidid species (representing 24 genera) were sampled.

Cryptic speciation and limited hybridization within Lumbricus earthworms (Clitellata: Lumbricidae).

Cryptic mitochondrial (mt) lineages are known to exist in the earthworm morphospecies Lumbricus rubellus and L. terrestris. The latter was recently split into two species, L.

Limnodrilus sulphurensis n. sp., from a sulfur cave in Colorado, USA, with notes on the morphologically similar L. profundicola (Clitellata, Naididae, Tubificinae).

A new species of the tubificine genus Limnodrilus is described and COI barcoded from Sulphur Cave and associated springs in Colorado, USA. The habitats are characterized by high sulfide concentrations. The new species, L.

Closely coupled evolutionary history of ecto- and endosymbionts from two distantly related animal phyla.

The level of integration between associated partners can range from ectosymbioses to extracellular and intracellular endosymbioses, and this range has been assumed to reflect a continuum from less intimate to evolutionarily highly stable associations. In this study, we examined the specificity and evolutionary history of marine symbioses in a group of closely related sulphur-oxidizing bacteria, called Candidatus Thiosymbion, that have established ecto- and endosymbioses with two distantly related animal phyla, Nematoda and Annelida. Intriguingly, in the ectosymbiotic associations of stilbonematine nematodes, we observed a high degree of congruence between symbiont and host phylogenies, based on their ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes.

Barcoding gap, but no support for cryptic speciation in the earthworm Aporrectodea longa (Clitellata: Lumbricidae).

DNA-barcoding, using the mitochondrial marker COI, has been found successful for the identification of specimens in many animal groups, but may not be suited for species discovery and delimitation if used alone. In this study, we investigate whether two observed COI haplogroups in the earthworm Aporrectodea longa correspond to two cryptic species or if the variation is intraspecific. This is done by complementing COI with two nuclear markers, ITS2 and Histone 3.

Corrigenda: Martinsson S, Rota E, Erséus C (2015) On the identity of Chamaedrilusglandulosus (Michaelsen, 1888) (Clitellata, Enchytraeidae), with the description of a new species. ZooKeys 501: 1-14. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.501.9279.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.501.

On the identity of Chamaedrilusglandulosus (Michaelsen, 1888) (Clitellata, Enchytraeidae), with the description of a new species.

The taxonomy of Chamaedrilusglandulosus (Michaelsen, 1888) s. l., most commonly known previously as Cognettiaglandulosa, is revised.

Oligochaeta (Annelida) of the profundal of Lake Hazar (Turkey), with description of Potamothrix alatus hazaricus n. ssp.

Lake Hazar is an alkaline oligotrophic lake of tectonic origin, located in the Eastern Anatolia region in Turkey, 1248 a a.s.l.