Microchaetus Rapp, 1849

Plisko, Jadwiga Danuta, 2003, Eleven new South African earthworms (Oligochaeta: Microchaetidae) with new information on some known species, and an inventory of the microchaetids of KwaZulu-Natal, African Invertebrates 44 (2), pp. 279-325 : 281

Microchaetus Rapp, 1849

Microchaetus Rapp, 1849: 142 .

Type species Lumbricus microchaetus Rapp, 1849 by monotypy. Type depository: Natural History Museum in Vienna .

Forty nine species recorded from SA and Swaziland (Table 1); 15 known from KZN, 12 being endemic.

Species distribution in KZN is shown in Fig. 1 .

Forty eight holandric and one metandric, with one oesophageal gizzard in segment 7, and one pair of nephridia per segment.

Three new species, distasmosus , idechoritus and quaerus , are described below. For the species earlier recorded from KZN, natalensis , parvus , pondoanus and tuberosus , new collection data are provided. For benhami , caementerii , papillatus and vernoni , notes are given. For species: ambitus Plisko, 1998 , griphus Plisko, 2002 , herberti Plisko, 2002 , mkuzi Plisko, 1992 and zaloumisi Plisko, 1992 , not examined in this paper, earlier known collection sites are mapped ( Fig. 1 ).

TABLE 1 The distribution of Microchaetus species. Species marked with one asterisk are endemic to KwaZulu­Natal; those marked with two asterisks occur in KZN but have broader distributions as indicated. Those with no asterisk have not been recorded from KZN but occur in the provinces indicated.

alipentus = Western Cape natalensis * * = SA: Mpumalanga, Limpopo; ambitus * SWAZILAND benhami = Eastern Cape obscurus = Western Cape braunsi = Eastern Cape occidualis = Western Cape caementerii * occiduus = Western Cape circulatus = Northern Cape papillatus *

crousi = Western Cape parvus * * = Mpumalanga davidi = Northern Cape pauli = Western Cape decipiens = Eastern Cape pearsonianus = Western Cape distasmosus * pentheri = Eastern Cape franciscus = Western Cape pentus = Western Cape griphus * peringueyi = Western Cape guntheri = Western Cape pondoanus ** = Eastern Cape hamerae = Western Cape quaerus *

herberti * rappi = Eastern Cape idechoritus * ritae = Eastern Cape imitatus = Western Cape rivus = Eastern Cape klopperi = Eastern Cape rosai = Western Cape ljungströmi = Western Cape sandersi = Eastern Cape madidus = Eastern Cape senarius = Western Cape metandrus = Western Cape sophiae = Western Cape microchaetus = Eastern Cape stuckenbergi = Eastern Cape mkuzi * tuberosus *

montanus = Eastern Cape vernoni *

namaensis = Western Cape zaloumisi *

Figures

Fig. 1. The distribution of species of Microchaetus and Michalakus in KZN. Microchaetus: 1 = ambitus; 2 = caementerii; 3 = distasmosus; 4 = griphus; 5 = herberti; 6 = idechoritus; 7 = mkuzi; 8 = natalensis; 9 = papillatus; 10 = parvus; 11 = pondoanus; 12 = quaerus; 13 = tuberosus; 14 = vernoni; 15 = zaloumisi; 16 = Michalakus initus.