MEGASCOLECIDAE sensu Blakemore, 2000

Blakemore, Robert J., Cho, Joo-Lae & Park, Tae Seo, 2012, Six exotic terrestrial earthworms (Oligochaeta: Megadrilacea: Moniligastridae, Lumbricidae, Ocnerodrilidae & Megascolecidae) newly added to Korean species biodiversity list *, Zootaxa 3368, pp. 300-304 : 302

Family MEGASCOLECIDAE sensu Blakemore, 2000

Metaphire californica ( Kinberg, 1867)

( Fig. 2)

NIBR IV0000246440 . from beside Temple at Mt Sanbangsan, Seogwipo-si , Andeok-myeon , Sangye-ri, SW coast of Jeju-do Island. Collected by R. J. Blakemore, 17 th Feb. 2012 from near drainage ditch. Single specimen in 80% EtOH .

Pontodrilus litoralis ( Grube, 1855)

NIBR IV0000245076 . Jeju-si, Udo-myeon, Hakosutong beach, Udo Island (N33°30’46.1” E126º57’31.5”), east coast of Jeju-do Island. Collected by T. S. Park, 26 th Aug. 2009. Four mature specimens bleached white in 75% EtOH in NIBR.

Note: Searches of adjacent Jeju beaches ( RJB, TSP) failed to yield further specimens (Feb. 2012) .

Remarks. The Convention on Biological Diversity website provides online links to international databases and regulations regarding various ‘invasive’ species (www.cbd.int/invasive/). All six of the current species are listed—with full descriptions, distributions, figures and synonymies – along with all 150 or so others of the so-called ‘ Cosmopolitan Earthworm ’ species that have been carried, presumably by agency of man, to other parts of the world and this resource has been compiled and maintained for the last 20 years (e.g., Blakemore 1999, 2002, 2010b, and in prep). Although usually considered beneficial or benign, those few earthworms that have been implicated in deleterious environmental effects (e.g. E. saltensis in rice paddies) are noted.

Approximately 50 new exotic records worldwide are by the principal author. For example, the Australian report of Drawida barwelli plus new records from both Australia and Tasmania of Ocnerodrilus occidentalis were by Blakemore (1994, 1999, 2000, 2002); two others of the semi-aquatic species ( Ei. tetraedra and Eu. saltensis ) as in the current paper were discovered and reported in Japan by Blakemore et al. (2006); and euryhaline Pontodrilus litoralis was redescribed by Blakemore (2007) with several new locations recognized from Australia, Japan and the Galapagos Islands.

Regarding Korea, currently ~113 species of earthworms are now recorded in four families and more than a dozen genera. Blakemore (2006, 2008) checklisted 94 species and, while adding twelve supposedly new Korean megascolecoid earthworms, Hong & James (2009) said the number then was 106 species. Despite not citing these checklists, they presumably accept all the synonyms and taxonomic decisions therein since 94 + 12 = 106 species. Nevertheless, it seems from fundamental revision that several species described from Korea are already well established cosmopolitans from adjacent lands such as Japan (e.g. Blakemore 2003, 2010a, 2012), China or Taiwan (e.g. Blakemore et al. 2006, Shen et al. 2005). Thus the current species tally may decline even as new records are added and it is inadvisable to add yet more names without thorough taxonomic revision from earliest records.

Elimination of the possibility of specimens being exotic expedites comparison with domestic and neighboring faunas and facilitates descriptions of truly new native taxa.