Doliodrilus Erséus, 1984

Wang, Hongzhu & Erséus, Christer, 2004, New species of Doliodrilus and other Limnodriloidinae (Oligochaeta, Tubificidae) from Hainan and other parts of the north-west Pacific Ocean, Journal of Natural History 38 (3), pp. 269-299 : 271

Genus Doliodrilus Erséus, 1984

Remarks. This genus was established by Erséus (1984) with D. tener Erséus, 1984 from Hong Kong as type species, and then expanded to accommodate D. diverticulatus Erséus, 1985 from Saudi Arabia (Erséus, 1985). Later, a third species, D. puertoricensis Erséus and Milligan, 1988 , was added from Puerto Rico (Erséus and Milligan, 1988). In this paper, we describe eight new species belonging to this genus, but some of them do not conform completely with the previous diagnosis, which thus needs to be revised, and this will be done in a more comprehensive study of the subfamily Limnodriloidinae elsewhere. As a rule, the members of Doliodrilus are characterized by: (1) a modified, enlarged, tract of oesophagus in IX (sometimes involving also a part of VIII) bearing a reticulate blood plexus (see Gustavsson and Erséus, 1999); (2) distinct prostatic pads, each restricted to a limited region of the atrial ampulla (see Erséus, 1982); (3) weakly granulated atrial ducts (see Erséus, 1982), generally provided with blind sacs or ectal dilatations, and terminating in simple male pores; (4) large, deeply staining, nucleus-like bodies in the prostate glands of some species, their true nature being unknown; and (5) vestibules at the ectal orifices of the spermathecal ducts.