Allolobophora

Szederjesi, Tímea, Pop, Victor V., Márton, Orsolya & Csuzdi, Csaba, 2019, New Earthworm Species And Records From The Southern Carpathians (Megadrili: Lumbricidae), Acta Zoologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 65 (2), pp. 123-142 : 125-126

Allolobophora pannonica ( Cognetti, 1906) stat. restit.

Helodrilus ictericus var. pannonica Cognetti, 1906: 19 .

Allolobophora mehadiensis var. pannonica: Pop 1948: 109 .

Allolobophora icterica var. pannonica: Pop 1949: 63 .

Serbiona pannonica: Mršić 1991: 198.

Allolobophora mehadiensis mehadiensis (part.): Pop et al. 2012: 63.

Material examined. NHMV/5009 1 ex. adult lectotypus + 1 ex. juvenile cut speci- men, Südost-Siebenbürgen, Paring Gebirg ( Southeast Transylvania , Parâng Mts ), leg. L. Ganglbauer. HNHM/17191 1 ex., Parâng Mts , N of Novaci, 675 m, 45°12.0436’N 23°41.5426’E, pasture with alder and hawthorn, leg. Cs. Csuzdi, L. Dányi, V. V. Pop, T. Szederjesi, 12.11.2016 . HNHM/17195 1 ex., Parâng Mts, between Novaci and Rânca , 722 m, 45°12.2333’N 23°41.8088’E, beech forest, leg. Cs. Csuzdi, L. Dányi, V. V. Pop, T. Szederjesi, 12.11.2016 .

External characters. Length 63–109 mm and 4.5–5 mm wide. Number of segments 156–172 with secondary and tertiary annulations. Colour light greyish. Prostomium epi- lobous ½ closed. First dorsal pore at the intersegmental furrow 9/10. Setae closely paired. Setal arrangement behind clitellum: aa:ab:bc:cd:dd = 19.94:1.51:11.83:1:33.76. Male pores on segment 15, surrounded by glandular crescents, confined in its own segment. Nephrid- ial pores invisible. Clitellum on segments ½34, 35–46. Tubercula pubertatis on segments 38–46. Glandular tumescence on segments 13, 15–20, 32–38 ab.

Internal characters. Septa 5/6–9/10 strongly, 10/11–13/14 slightly thickened. Testes and funnels paired in segments 10–11. Two pairs of seminal vesicles in 11–12. Two pairs of spermathecae in 9/10, 10/11 with external openings in setal line d. Calciferous glands in 10–12 with diverticula in segment 10. Paired hearts in segments 7–11. with a pair of small extraoesophageal vessels in 12. Nephridial bladders J-shaped, proclinate. Crop in seg- ments 15–16, and gizzard in segments 17–18. Typhlosolis multilobous. The cross-section of the longitudinal muscle layer of fasciculated type.

Remarks. COGNETTI (1906) described this species as a variety of Aporrectodea icterica ( Savigny, 1826) based on a subadult specimen, mentioning only a few characteristics (e.g. the clitellum) and highlighting that all the others are similar to Ap. icterica . Since then the different authors revised this taxon based exclusively on the original description, without examining the type specimens. POP (1948) while describing A. mehadiensis var. boscaiui , revised the morphologically similar taxa and regarded pannonica as a variety of mehadiensis , basically because it fits well the Dacian mehadiensis group with its type locality in the Parâng Mts, Southern Carpathians, instead of Ap. icterica , which is mostly found in France, Belgium, Switzerland and Italy. Pop also emphasized that even though pannonica has only two pairs of vesicles simi- larly to Ap. icterica , most A. mehadiensis subspecies have very small or reduced vesicles in segment 9 and 10, and here probably a transition can be observed between the 4 pairs type and the 2 pairs.

MRŠIĆ (1991), in his monograph, placed pannonica into the Carpatho-Balkanic genus Serbiona and raised it to species level, but without any remark. On the other hand, POP et al. (2012) regarded pannonica as a synonym of A. mehadiensis mehadiensis Rosa, 1895 because of the position of its clitellar organs, based on the original description.

Morphologically, some newly collected specimens from the Parâng Mts. showed high similarity with the syntypes housed in the earthworm collection of the Natural History Museum Vienna and revealed just slight differences from the original description, mainly in the position of the tubercles: 38–46 vs. 35–44 (the latter is similar to Ap. icterica ). Its body dimensions, the number of vesicles, the position of the clitellum and the tubercles clearly differentiate pannonica from the mehadiensis subspecies ( Table 2) and justify its species level status. From the two syntype specimens in the collection of the NHMV, the more or less adult specimen has been selected as lectotype.