Dero sawayai Marcus, 1943

Righi, Gilberto & Hamoui, Viviane, 2002, Oligochaeta, Naididae Of The West Indies And Adjacent Regions, Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia 42 (6), pp. 119-167 : 129

Dero sawayai Marcus, 1943

Dero sawayai Marcus, 1943: 35 , figs. 19-20; 1944: 50; Sperber, 1948: 186; Naidu, 1962a: 541, fig. 18a-g.

Dero (D.) sawayai, Brinkhurst, 1971b: 371 , fig. 714N-Q; Harman, 1974: 21; Dumnicka, 1986: 268, fig. 3a-e.

Material: St. Martin 529: 5 specimens; 538b: 1 specimen. Montserrat 838: 5 specimens . Martinique 852, 12 specimens . Grenada 659A, 5 specimens . Margarita 13, 4 specimens. Bonaire 44e, 1 specimen ; 52a, 4 specimens; 52e, 8 specimens; 55: 5 specimens; 379a: 3 specimens; 379i: 5 specimens; Curaçao 891, 1 specimen ; Aruba 100, 3 specimens ; 635: 4 specimens; 636: 108 specimens. La Goajira 113: 9 specimens. Surinam 120: 1 specimen ; 566: 1 specimen; 642: 18 specimens; 923, 1 specimen; 925: 2 specimens. Habitat: Limnetic to oligohaline; salinity 0.03-2.7%.

Distribution: Asia ( Naidu, 1962a; Costa, 1967). Neotropical Region: Argentina: Entre Rios Prov. ( Di Persia, 1980b). Brazil: São Paulo, Alagoas, Pernambuco and Ceará States ( Marcus, 1943; 1944). Ecuador ( Coates & Stacey, 1994). Suriname ( Harman, 1974). Venezuela: Falcon Dept. Virgin Gorda; Anegada; St. Thomas; Haiti ( Dumnicka, 1986). La Goajira; Aruba; Curaçao; Bonaire; Margarita; Grenada; Martinique; Montserrat (Righi & Hamoui).

Remarks: Dero heterobranchiata Michaelsem (1933) was described from a posterior fragment collected in Bonaire. Its probable synonymy with D. sawayai , as proposed by Sperber (1948), is due to a mis-translation of Marcus’ (1943) text, the Portuguese word “duma” (= of one) was taken as “duas” (= two). So the two species are distinguished by the number of hair setae per bundle, 2 in heterobranchiata and one in sawayai .