Metaphors

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Metaphors
Systematics
Trunk : Annelids (Annelida)
Class : Belt worms (Clitellata)
Subclass : Little bristle (Oligochaeta)
Order : Earthworms in the broader sense (Crassiclitellata)
Family : Giant Earthworms (Megascolecidae)
Genre : Metaphors
Scientific name
Metaphors
Sims & Easton , 1972

Metaphire is a genus of little bristles from the family of Megascolecidae (giantearthworms) in the order of Crassiclitellata (earthworms in the broader sense), more than 100 species of which are found in South Asia , East Asia , Southeast Asia and Oceania .

features

The giant earthworms of the genus Metaphire have cylindrical bodies and numerous bristles regularly arranged around the segment on each of their many segments . The ring-shaped clitellum occupies the three segments from the 14th to the 16th segment. The pair of male genital orifices sit on the abdomen side within copulation pouches, in which there are often stalked glands but no secretory diverticula, on the 18th, rarely on the 19th or 20th segment. On the 14th segment there is a mostly unpaired, rarely a pair of female sexual openings. The testes are mostly holandric, so they appear as two pairs in the 10th and 11th segment, more rarely proandric or metandric than just one pair. Grape-shaped prostate glands open into the sperm ladder . One pair of ovaries is in the 13th segment. The receptacula seminis open out via mostly large, transversely slit-shaped, rarely small, usually paired, more rarely unpaired or numerous openings at the intersegmental folds, depending on the type, between the 4th and 10th segment at the rear edge of the respective Segment to the outside. The foregut has a chewing stomach that comprises up to 2 segments between the 8th and 9th segment. In or next to the 27th segment there is a pair of intestinal blind sacs. The animals have numerous small nephridia (micronephridia or meronephridia), but not in the ducts of the receptacula seminis. From Amynthas differs Metaphire by the existing Kopulationsbeutel while of Pheretima can be distinguished by the absence of nephridia in the corridors of Receptacula Seminis.

distribution

The more than 100 types of metaphors are distributed in Asia from India and Pakistan northwards to Japan and southwards over the entire Malay Archipelago and the rainforests of Australasia and eastwards throughout Oceania . Individual species - such as the Metaphire posthuma , which is very common in India - have been introduced to other continents, such as Europe , North America and South America , as invasive species .

Habitat and way of life

Like other Crassiclitellates , the earthworms of the genus Metaphire are soil-dwellers and substrate- eaters , who digest the organic components of the ingested substrate and excrete the mineral components unchanged. Through their digging, they loosen and aerate the soil.

Development cycle

Like all girdle worms , the giant earthworms of the genus Metaphire are hermaphrodites and reproduce sexually through mutual copulation, with the sperm of the respective sex partner being stored in the receptacula seminis . With the help of the short clitellum , cocoons are formed, in which both mothers lay their eggs and inseminate them with the sperm of their sex partner. The embryos develop into finished earthworms in the cocoon.

Systematics

The genus Metaphire - according to the authors, intended as an anagram of the name Pheretima - was newly described in 1972 by Reginald William Sims and Edward Glynn Easton as part of a revision of the genus Pheretima in the family Megascolecidae . Most of the species presented for this purpose were therefore previously included in other earthworm genera, and only a comparatively few have been newly described within this genus.

species

The genus Metaphire includes over 100 species :

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Metaphire Sims & Easton 1972 in the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (IT). Accessed December 1, 2018.