Lake Pedder earthworm
| Lake Pedder earthworm | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name of the genus | ||||||||||||
| Hypolimnus | ||||||||||||
| Blakemore , 2000 | ||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the species | ||||||||||||
| Hypolimnus pedderensis | ||||||||||||
| ( Jamieson , 1974) |
The Lake Pedder earthworm ( Hypolimnus pedderensis ) is the only species in the genus Hypolimnus from the Megascolecidae family . The species was only known on the shores of Lake Pedder , Tasmania, it is now extinct due to the construction of a dam.
features
The body of the holotype is 50 millimeters long and 1.5 millimeters wide, it becomes narrower towards the rear end. It has 129 segments. The front end and the dorsal side are colored brown. The clitellum extends from the middle of the thirteenth to the seventeenth segment, the paired female sexual pores sit on 14, the male on small elevations at 18; there is a pair of converted mating bristles (penes). Dorsal pores are absent on the front body, they are present in the middle section (approximately from segment 35). There are 10 to 12 setae per segment on the front body, their number increases towards the rear to 24, with extra seta pairs caudally to a total of 28, these are in regular rows. A gizzard can be seen in segments 5, 6 and parts of 7 (generic feature).
Taxonomy
This species was first as Perionychella pedderensis 1974 by Jamieson described and 1996 by Blakemore in the genre Hypolimnus moved. Their generic affiliation is controversial and has long been unclear, which means that there are many scientific synonyms : Diporochaeta pedderensis Jamieson, Perionychella pedderensis Dyne, Atlantodrilus pedderensis Blakemore.
Biology and way of life
Since this species is only known from the holotype , found in 1971 on the beach of Lake Pedder on the island of Tasmania , its way of life and reproduction are not known. The species lived in the water-filled gap system (interstitial, Psammal) of the loose sandy beach of the original Lake Pedder, at the confluence of the Marina Creek. Related species are suspected to be in the inaccessible catchment area of the stream, a relatively similar, still undescribed species (placed in the genus Perionychella , subgenus Vesiculodrilus ) was found there.
die out
When the lake was dammed by three dams from 1972, the beaches of the original Lake Pedder disappeared and with them the Lake Pedder earthworm. Since all further searches to find the species were unsuccessful, the IUCN lists this species in the Extinct category .
swell
- Robert J. Blakemore: Re-description of the lake pedder earthworm Hypolimnus pedderensis, the first earthworm listed on the IUCN Red List of the word's threatened species Earthworms / Hpedderensis.pdf PDF on annelida.net
- Robert J. Blakemore, (2000): Taxonomic and conservation status of earthworms from Lake Pedder, Tasmania Wilderness World Heritage Area. Records of the Queen Victoria Museum 109: 1-36.
Individual evidence
- ^ Research results by GR Dyne, according to Advice to the Minister for the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts from the Threatened Species Scientific Committee (the Committee) on Amendment to the list of Threatened Species under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act). PDF
Web links
- Hypolimnus pedderensis inthe IUCN 2012 Red List of Threatened Species . Listed by: Blakenmore, RJ, 2003. Retrieved April 4, 2013.