Alluroides tanganyikae Beddard 1906

Jamieson, Barrie G. M. & Fragoso, Carlos, 2024, A monograph of the Oligochaete family Alluroididae, Zootaxa 5529 (3), pp. 401-435 : 419

Alluroides tanganyikae Beddard 1906

Alluroides tanganyikae Beddard 1906: 215 .

Alluroides tanganyikae Beddard (part.) Brinkhurst 1964: 528; Brinkhurst & Jamieson 1971: 714–715.

(Non?) Alluroides tanganyikae ; Michaelsen 1913: 7; 1914a: 89; 1914b: 165; 1915: 29; 1935: 36.

Taken from Brinkhurst and Jamieson (1971).

Length 30 mm, width 1·5 mm, segments 60. Prostomium long and pointed, transversely bisected by a constriction, but zygolobous. Ventral setal couples absent from XIII. Clitellum? Male pores on XIII in line with the ventral setae (of adjacent segments). Female pores in intersegment 13/ 14 in ab. Spermathecae single, pore middorsal in 8/9, with tumid periphery and very conspicuous. Septal glands obvious. Intestine beginning in XIX, transition from moniliform oesophagus abrupt. Chloragogen cells apparently beginning in IX. Nephridia? Atria a pair ending posteriorly in oval expansions; directed posteriorly to the pores.

Distribution. Lake Tanganyika at about 10 fathoms (18.3 metres).

Remarks. Since the last revision of this genus ( Brinkhurst & Jamieson 1971) and owing to the fact that no new material has been collected and/or revised, the status of A. tanganyikae Beddard (1906) remains uncertain owing to omissions and contradictions in the type–description and the paucity of information yielded by the holotype ( Brinkhurst 1964). Its inadequate characterization, together with an apparent difference in location of the male pores and in intestinal origin, have made it necessary to separate A. tanganyikae from the better–known material from Mt. Elgon referred to this species by Brinkhurst (1964), the latter being regarded ( Jamieson 1968; 1971) as a distinct species, A. brinkhursti . The affinity between tanganyikae and brinkhursti cannot be settled until topotypic material of the former taxon is collected from Lake Tanganyika, a lake noted for the high endemicity of its fauna. Occurrence of A. tanganyikae in the lake at a depth of 60 feet (18.3 metres), whereas brinkhursti is a montane form, lends some support to taxonomic separation. Its affinities with pordagei are also uncertain but A. pordagei has been shown (Jamieson 1971) to be clearly distinguished from A. brinkhursti (Mt. Elgon and Ethiopian sub–species) in its extreme septal thickening. If this distinction is found to exist between pordagei and tanganyikae it will considerably strengthen the grounds for specific separation. They were merged as subspecies by Michaelsen (1936).