Pristina osborni ( Walton, 1906 )

Righi, Gilberto & Hamoui, Viviane, 2002, Oligochaeta, Naididae Of The West Indies And Adjacent Regions, Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia 42 (6), pp. 119-167 : 143-144

Pristina osborni ( Walton, 1906)

Naidium osborni Walton, 1906: 703 , fig. 12A-D.

Naidium minutum Stephenson, 1914: 327 , figs. 3-5; 1915b: 786; 1923: 68, fig. 22; Marcus, 1943: 129, figs. 103-104A-C.

Pristina minuta Sperber, 1948: 222 ; Naidu, 1963: 206, fig. 29A-C; Brinckhurst, 1964: 217; 1966: 142; Righi, 1973: 295, figs. 1-4; 1978: 485; Harman, 1973: 159; Gavrilov, 1981: 179.

Pristina osborni, Harman & Platt, 1961: 93 ; Brinkhurst, 1971b: 395, fig. 7.22N- P; Di Persia, 1973: 283, figs. 10-12; 1980a: 96; Gavrilov, 1977: 106; Harman, 1982a: 296.

Pristinella osborni, Brinkhurst, 1985: 472 ; Harman et al. 1988: 2239; Coates & Stacey, 1994: 82.

Material : St. Christopher 503: 22 specimens. Dominique 847: 1 specimen. Margarita 15: 1 specimen. Paraguaná 109: 1 specimen. Surinam 566: 4 specimens. Habitat: Limnetic; salinity 0.02-0.21 %.

Distribution: Asia ( Stephenson, 1914; Naidu, 1963). Africa ( Brinkhurst, 1966). North America ( Walton, 1906; Harman, 1973). Neotropical Region: Argentina: Prov. Mendonza, Cordoba, Santa Fe, Entre Rios, Corrientes, Tucuman ( Di Persia, 1980a; Marchese, 1986; Harman et al. 1988). Peru: Dept. Lima, Loreto ( Harman et al. 1988; Coates & Stacey, 1994). Brazil: States São Paulo, Minas Gerais, Amazonas ( Marcus, 1943; Righi, 1973; 1978). Costa Rica ( Harman, 1982a). Surinam; Paraguaná; Margarita; St. Christopher (Righi & Hamoui). This limnetic species is also known from soil in Brazil ( Righi, 1973; 1978) and moss in Costa Rica ( Harman, 1982a).

Remarks: Pristina osborni and P. minuta has been distinguished by the length of the hair setae: it is longer or similar to the body diameter in osborni and shorter in minuta . The relation between body diameter and length of the hairs is aleatory in our specimens thence the synonymy.

According to Brinkhurst (1985) the genera Pristina Ehrenberg (1828) and Pristinella Brinkhurst (1985) are separated by proboscis, prostate glands and spermathecae present in the first and absent in the second ones. Presence or absence of proboscis can not be considered a valid generic characteristic due to its great intra-specific variability ( Marcus, 1943; Righi & Hamoui, 1989). Absence of prostate glands and or spermathecae is related to parthenogenetic reproduction in Megadrili Oligochaeta ( Gates, 1972) and among the Naididae parthenogenesis has been indicated to Pristina amphibiotica Lastockin ( Sperber, 1948) , P. longidentata Harman ( Righi & Hamoui, 1989) and some other Pristina species.