The first earthworm records from Batanta Island, West Papua, Indonesia (Megadrili: Acanthodrilidae, Megascolecidae)

Abstract

Identification of a small but valuable earthworm material collected on Batanta and the neighbouring small Birie Island in 2014 and 2019 resulted in recording five species. The only acanthodrilid species in the sample, Dichogaster annae (Horst, 1893), is a widely introduced circumtropical peregrine worm. The two closely related Polypheretima species, P. annulata (Horst, 1883) and P. fakfakensis (Cognetti, 1908), bear a typical West Papuan distribution. Amynthas halmaherae (Michaelsen, 1896) is found from North Maluku to New Britain. A. hendersonianus (Cognetti, 1914) was most probably introduced to its type locality, the Henderson Island, and its natural range covers New Guinea and the neighbouring islands.

Keywords

• clitellata
• oligochaeta
• amynthas
• polypheretima
• distribution