Scherotheca Bouché, 1972

Marchán, Daniel Fernández, Domínguez, Jorge, Hedde, Mickaël & Decaëns, Thibaud, 2023, The cradle of giants: insights into the origin of Scherotheca Bouché, 1972 (Lumbricidae, Crassiclitellata) with the descriptions of eight new species from Corsica, France, Zoosystema 45 (3), pp. 107-128 : 110-111

Genus Scherotheca Bouché, 1972

Scherotheca Bouché, 1972: 279 .

TYPE SPECIES. — Lumbricus gigas Dùges, 1828 .

DIAGNOSIS. — Lumbricidae of medium to giant size, post-clitellar trapezoidal section. Pigmentation ranging from absent to dark brown. Prostomium epilobous, closed. Longitudinal furrows in the peristomium. Nephridial pores “en solfège” (irregularly distributed). Spermathecal pores in at least two intersegments, between 9/10 and 13/14, or 12/13 and 18/19, sometimes multiple. Anterior septa strongly thickened. Male pores in ½ 15, usually with porophores. Gizzard in 17-20 (21, 22). Typhlosole pinnate. Two or four pairs of seminal vesicles in (9, 10) 11, 12.

DISTRIBUTION. — The genus Scherotheca is known (from the eastern to the western limits of its range) from Northeastern Italy, Tuscan Archipelago, Corsica Island, Mediterranean continental France and Spanish Catalonia, Southwestern France and part of the Spanish Cantabrian mountains.