Microchaetidae Michaelsen, 1900

Misirlioğlu, Mete, Reynolds, John Warren, Stojanović, Mirjana, Trakić, Tanja, Sekulić, Jovana, James, Samuel W., Csuzdi, Csaba, Decaëns, Thibaud, Lapied, Emmanuel, Phillips, Helen R. P., Cameron, Erin K. & Brown, George G., 2023, Earthworms (Clitellata, Megadrili) of the world: an updated checklist of valid species and families, with notes on their distribution, Zootaxa 5255 (1), pp. 417-438 : 427

Microchaetidae Michaelsen, 1900

The family Microchaetidae is closely related to the two other Microchaetoidea families Tritogeniidae and Kazimierzidae ( Plisko 2013; Nxele et al. 2016), and consists of three genera ( Geogenia , Microchaetus and Proandricus ) and 81 species (plus six subspecies) distributed exclusively in temperate and Mediterranean Southern Africa. They are known from Northern South Africa near the vicinity of the Limpopo River down to the southern limit of the continent, in all provinces as well as in Lesotho and Swaziland ( Plisko 2013). The three genera appear to have a rather geographically separate distribution, with little overlap. None of the known species have been reported outside of this rather restricted range, although Plisko (2013) predicted that Microchaetidae would also be found in Zimbabwe, Botswana and Mozambique. Interestingly, some of the longest known earthworm species in the world, including Microchaetus vernoni Plisko (measuring up to 2.6 m when alive) belong to this family, which contains a reasonably large number of giant (very large or long) earthworm species, some with over 1,000 segments, particularly in the genus Microchaetus ( Plisko 1992, 2013).