Amynthas formosae (Michaelsen, 1922)

James, Samuel W., Shih, Hsi-Te & Chang, Hsueh-Wen, 2005, Seven new species of Amynthas (Clitellata: Megascolecidae) and new earthworm records from Taiwan, Journal of Natural History 39 (14), pp. 1007-1028 : 1017

Amynthas formosae (Michaelsen, 1922)

Amynthas yuhsi Tsai 1964, p. 5 .

Material examined

Type, adult, Koseypo (5 Jiasian , Kaohsiung County ), Taiwan. National Natuurhistorisch Museum, Leiden, Netherlands, cat. no. 1817 .

Description

Slight dorsal-anterior dark pigmentation, male field with conical porophores composed of concentric rings, innermost ring surrounding semi-circular protrusion from within slight indentation; this protrusion placed laterally to a smaller round protrusion of lower elevation; male pores not seen but probably on the smaller protrusion or between the two protrusions. Thirty setal follicles between porophores, 27 present in these; porophore apices 8 mm apart, or 0.25 body circumference. Spermathecal pores intrasegmental at equators of presetal annulus in each of segments vi–ix, subdorsal, 0.06–0.08 circumference apart from dorsal side.

Prostates composed of four or five main lobes, each connected by numerous very small ductlets to large muscular prostatic duct; prostatic ducts consisting of thick circular muscle layer surrounding spongy tissue composed of numerous very small tubules.

Remarks

The single type specimen examined is missing the gut, hearts and male organs from ix–xvii. Additional type material formerly in the Zoologisches Institut Hamburg (cat. no. 9309) was discovered to be missing when requested for examination, the bottle and label being present but no material within. Thus little more than the above could be learned regarding internal anatomy. It is now clear that the spermathecal pores are intrasegmental and very close to the mid-dorsal line, in contrast to representations made in Gates (1959) for other material. The prostatic duct structure of the type is clearly generally similar to A. hengchunensis and the other proandric species described below. Gates’ (1959) material may belong to a separate species, because the spermathecal pores are given as ‘‘well towards mL’’, rather than nearly mid-dorsal dorsal and intrasegmental as in A. formosae . Amynthas yuhsi as described by Tsai (1964) is indistinguishable from the remains of the type of A. formosae , so it is a junior synonym.