Acanthodrilus sclateri Beddard, 1897

Plisko, Jadwiga Danuta, 2012, An annotated checklist of the South African Acanthodrilidae (Oligochaeta: Acanthodrilidae: Acanthodrilinae, Benhamiinae), Zootaxa 3458, pp. 4-58 : 51-52

Acanthodrilus sclateri Beddard, 1897 —species dubia

Acanthodrilus sclateri Beddard, 1897: 324 .

Chilota sclateri: Michaelsen 1900: 148 .

(Acanthodrilus) sclateri sp. inquir. aut spuria: Michaelsen 1913a: 533, 1913b: 59. Acanthodrilus sclateri: Reynolds & Cook 1976: 169 .

? Chilota (Parachilota) sclateri sp. dubia: Pickford 1937: 575.

Type locality. Knysna (after Michaelsen 1913b).

Remarks. The confused original species description ( Beddard 1897: 342) and the heterogeneity of the 19 type specimens led Michaelsen (1913a, b) to consider this species as ‘species inquirenda, if not species spuria’. The type material consists of few decomposed, fractioned specimens, labelled as ‘ syntypes BMNH 1904.10.5.891–893 Acanthodrilus sclateri … this is a part of number 891-3’. Occasionally this species name was associated with a variety of other species as a synonym. Pickford (1937: 575) after comprehensive examination of the sclateri description and fractions of material declared as ‘syntypes’, confirmed sclateri as a species incertae sedis.

Furthermore, Pickford (1937: 580–583) indicated several, possible new Acanthodrilinae species, but did not name them properly, suggesting only possible relationships to known species. Specimens were immature and poorly preserved, and their short descriptions are not satisfactory for species identification. These are:

Parachilota sp. aff. P. p a i s h i,

Parachilota sp. aff. P. eodriliformis ,

Parachilota sp. aff. P. t h e ro n i.

Descriptions of these species are too insufficient to consider them as valid species, and they are recorded here for historical reasons only.