Octolasion Örley, 1885

Plisko, Jadwiga Danuta, 2010, Megadrile earthworm taxa introduced to South African soils (Oligochaeta: Acanthodrilidae, Eudrilidae, Glossoscolecidae, Lumbricidae, Megascolecidae, Ocnerodrilidae), African Invertebrates 51 (2), pp. 289-289 : 301

Genus Octolasion Örley, 1885

Octolasion cyaneum ( Savigny, 1826: 181)

Described from Paris , France. Distributed in many parts of the world. In RSA found only at one site in Eagle Ridge Forest Resort , near Stutterheim ( EC). Collected from garden soil (6 clitellate, 10 juvenile) on the property of a German family who planted imported flowers a few weeks before the species was found. It is not known if the species presently occurs in the locality, or if it has spread to neighbouring fields .

In Europe it is known from isolated sites and usually occurs in small populations ( Plisko 1973; Csuzdi & Zicsi 2003). Gates (1972) repeated, after Karppinen and Nurminen (1964) that in Finland, this species was introduced to greenhouses and spread within a short time to neighbouring gardens. Recently Kuu and Ivask (2010) recorded rapid spread of large populations of this species in northern and western Estonia.

Octolasion lacteum ( Örley, 1881: 584)

Widely distributed over the world. In RSA reported under numerous synonyms, from a Cape Town garden (WC), a Potchefstroom plant pot (NW), Sabie (MP), and the Limpopo forests (LP). In NMSAD, recorded from over 200 sites in all RSA provinces, from natural and cultivated biotopes. Reproduces in variable parthenogenetic and polyploid forms. Under favourable climatic conditions occurs abundantly in moist soils, dispersing widely in natural and cultivated land. Occasionally found together with the introduced lumbricids D. rubidus , D. octaedra and L. castaneus , and with the indigenous microchaetids Tritogenia ngelensis Plisko, 1997 and Proandricus martensi Plisko, 2002 , and with the acanthodrilid Parachilota timothyi Plisko, 2008 .