Scherotheca haymozi, Marchán & Novo & Domínguez & Silva & Martínez & Gerard & Hedde & Decaëns, 2023

Marchán, Daniel Fernández, Novo, Marta, Domínguez, Jorge, Silva, Alberto Da, Martínez, Alejandro, Gerard, Sylvain, Hedde, Mickaël & Decaëns, Thibaud, 2023, The best is yet to come: six new species within a largebodied earthworm genus (Scherotheca, Lumbricidae) in a densely sampled region (south-western France), Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 198 (3), pp. 802-820 : 816

SCHEROTHECA HAYMOZI (ZICSI, 1977) COMB. NOV.

Allolobophora haymozi Zicsi, 1977 .

Aporrectodea haymozi Zicsi, 1977 : in Zicsi and Csuzdi, 1999.

Aporrectodea haymoziformis Zicsi and Csuzdi, 1999 .

Remarks: The original descriptions of Al. haymozi and Ap. haymoziformis differ slightly in the position of the clitellum (XXXIII–1/2 XL, XL vs. 1/2 XXXIII, XXXIII, XXXIV–XL, XLI), tubercula pubertatis (XXXV, XXXVI–XL vs. 1/2 XXXIV, XXXIV–XL, 1/2 XLI) and spermathecae (XII, XIII, XIV vs. XI, XII, XIII, XIV). However, the results of the molecular phylogenetic analysis and COI genetic distances clearly indicate that these morphological differences correspond to intraspecific variability between different populations, as specimens fitting both descriptions showed a small genetic divergence. These justify considering Ap. haymoziformis as a junior synonym of Al. haymozi . The phylogenetic position of the species further justifies its placement within the genus Scherotheca ( Fig. 1 ).

Figures

Figure 1. Bayesian phylogenetic inference tree based on the concatenated sequence of the molecular markers COI, 16S, tRNAs (Ala-Leu-Ser), ND1 and 28S. The main topological difference between the Bayesian and maximum likelihood best trees is shown as a dashed line. Outgroups are not displayed. Sequences generated for this work are highlighted in bold. The coloured rectangles indicate Corsican (green), Occitan (orange) and south-western (blue) species groups. Subgenera according to Qiu & Bouché (1998) are indicated by symbols (see legend in the figure).