Megascolides orthostichon (Schmarda, 1861)

Blakemore, Robert J., 2012, On Schmarda’s lost earthworm and some newly found New Zealand species (Oligochaeta: Megadrilacea: Lumbricidae, Acanthodrilidae, Octochaetidae, & Megascolecidae s. stricto), Journal of Species Research 1 (2), pp. 105-132 : 121

Megascolides orthostichon (Schmarda, 1861)

[ Fig. 12 ]

Synonymy. Hypogaeon orthostichon Schmarda, 1861a:

12, Plate 18, fig. 159.

Lumbricus orthostichon : Hutton, 1883: 586; Fletcher, 1886: 534.

Megascolides orthostichon : Beddard, 1892: 130; 1895: 496; Lee, 1959: 349; Lee, 1962: 175-176, figs. 11, 12 (of midriff and 9rhs spermatheca of non-type specimens, possibly of a different species); Blakemore, 2000c: 261-263, fig. 105; 2001: 5.

Notoscolex orthostichon : Michaelsen, 1900: 189; Benham, 1904a: 284, 1904b: 256.

Type Material. Listed by Reynolds & Cook (1976: 148) as Hamburg Museum: 8615, although Beddard (1892 a) inspected type material in the Vienna Museum, dissecting one specimen, and Beddard (1895: 496) later noted “ I had only the type of SCHMARDA, which it was necessary to respect.” Cole (1981) reports: firstly, that Beddard (1892) re-inspected Megascolides orthostichon (Schmarda, 1861) Vienna Museum type specimens of Hypogaeon orthostichon [4 specimens (= syntypes?)]; and secondly, that he found Perichaeta vitiensis Beddard, 1892 [= Pheretima (Pheretima) montana Kinberg, 1867 ] had a single specimen in the Vienna Museum mislabelled as “ Hypogeon orthostichon Schm. Viti Ins. [= Fiji]”.

Other material. London BM:1904:10:5:488/490, of unknown provenance from the British Museum ‘Beddard Collection’, (two clitellate matures, one entire and one dissected along the dorsal mid-line, plus three aclitellate specimens); these specimens were inspected by Lee (1962), but whether they were the correct taxon is uncertain. Furthermore, as non-type material, they would have no ICZN name-bearing function.

Remarks. The synonymy given above details available information on this species, as summarized in Blakemore (2000c), with its similarities discussed by Benham (1904b) and by Lee (1962: 176) who thought the non-type BM specimens he inspected resembled Tokea kirki Benham, 1904 (originally and currently in Tokea after a sojourn in Notoscolex or, at the time Lee was writing, in Megascolides -see Appendix II).

Since Megascolides orthostichon (Schmarda, 1861) was not relocated at its type-locality during the present brief survey, and neither is it known to have been report- ed on site for 150 years, it may thus qualify under DoC NZTCS ( Molloy et al., 2002) classification as ‘Nationally Critical’, if not tagged ‘Possibly Extinct’ or even ‘Extinct’ under IUCN (2011) Redbook List Categories. No native earthworms were found at Mt Wellington thus it seems that pastoral cultivation particularly favours exotics. Further combined ecological and taxonomic (ecotaxonomic) survey is required to confirm or disconfirm this status and these conclusions.

Figures

Fig. 12. Megascolides orthostichon (Schmarda, 1861) from his Plate XVIII, fig. 159.