Published March 3, 2026
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TABLE 1. A in A new small Drawida Michaelsen, 1900 (Clitellata: Moniligastridae) species from the Western Ghats of Kerala State, India
Authors/Creators
- 1. Centre for Animal Taxonomy and Ecology, Department of Zoology, Christ College (Autonomous), Affiliated with University of Calicut, Irinjalakuda, Thrissur - 680 125, Kerala, India.
- 2. Department of Zoology, Sree Kerala Varma College, Kanattukara PO., Thrissur – 680 011, Kerala, India.
- 3. Advanced Centre of Environmental Studies and Sustainable Development, Mahatma Gandhi University, Priyadarsini Hills, Kottayam - 686560, Kerala, India.
Description
TABLE 1. A detailed comparison of the features of the Barwelli species group, including the new species
| Characters | D. barwelli (Beddard, 1886) 1, 2,3, 4 | D. beddardii (Rosa, 1890) 2, 4, 5, 6,7, 8 | D. rara Gates, 1925 6, 9 | D. constricta Gates, 1929 6, 7, 10 | D. spissata Gates, 1930 6, 11 | D. delicata * Gates, 1962 6, 11, 12 | D. vazhania Ardra & Narayanan, sp. nov. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Length | 25–44 mm | 24–120 mm | 35–80 mm | 73–110 mm | 90–130 mm | 23–27 mm | 21–39 mm |
| Width | 1.35–2.23 mm | 2–5 mm | 3–4 mm | 3–4½ mm | 5–7 mm | 2 mm | 2.5–4.5 mm |
| Segments | 89–119 | 117–188 | 154 | 148–196 | 159 | ? | 106–146 |
| Colour | Unpigmented | Yellow-brown or white (unpigmented) | White (unpigmented) | White (unpigmented) | Unpigmented | Greyish or blueish | Light grey dorsum, whitish ventrum (unpigmented) |
| Dorsal pores | Absent | Present | Absent | ? | Absent | ? | Absent |
| Clitellum | 10–13 (= 4) | 9–14 (= 6) | 10–13 (= 4) | 10–13, 14 (= 4, 5) | ? | ? | ½9–½14 (= 5) |
| Spermathecal pores | Concealed in furrow at c | Large slits at or median to cd | Median to c | Median to c | At c | Close to c (?) | Large slits at c |
| Male pore location | On small, eversible penes, penes usually retracted male apertures, between bc | On short tubular penes pointing forward (length a little more than half the segment), between bc | Usually on slight teat-like protuberances, between bc | On rather conical porophores, between bc | On conical anteriorly directed porophores, between bc | On anteriomesially directed porophores, between bc | On short tubular penes, usually concealed within aperture; between bc |
| Genital markings/ tumescence | Whitened pads anterior and posterior to secondary male aperture | Whitened areas of epidermal thickenings, in front and behind male pores | Present, usually whitened epidermal thickenings in segments 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 | Present, whitened areas of epidermal thickenings in segments 10, 11, occasionally on 7, 8, 12. | Present, in segments 8 and circular lips on 10 marked by a deep groove | Absent, epidermis whitened in bc between equators of 10/11 | Present, irregularshaped epidermal thickening, together a flower-like impression, with grooves, in 10 and 11 |
| No. of gizzards (within segments) | Three (in 14–16) | Three to six (in 12–20) | Three to five (in 12–18) | Two to four (in 13–18) | Four to five (in 17–21) | Four (in 12–15) | Three to four (in 12–16) |
| Intestine begins | ? | 24±1 | 23±1 24, 25 | ? | ? | 20±1 | |
| Vas deferens; joins prostate at its | Thin delicate and much coiled; middle | Quite short, S-shaped and not twisted; subentally | Rather short, slender; about at the centre of prostate | Rather short, slender; ental end | Very long, thickened portion in a cluster of long loops, three times larger than testis sac; ental end | Long, in a cluster of loops, as large as testis sac; towards ectal end | Very long, coiled into a large mass, smaller than testis sac; middle portion |
| Prostates | Glandular, erect, cotton-like with penial chamber | Glandular, digitiform, not usually long, gland lack at ectal end | Sessile, circular, discoidal to domes-shaped | Short, erect | Glandular, very long, coiled, looped | Glandular, erect, berry-shaped with fine duct | Glandular, kidney-shaped, dome-shaped muscular ectal end (penial chamber) |
| Prostatic capsule | Digitiform | Digitiform, erect or bent | Small, spindle-shaped in parietes | Club-shaped, narrowed ectally, bent | Digitiform | Digitiform or club-shaped | Narrow, round tubular, Cshaped |
| Spermathecal duct | Long, slender, coiled and contorted | Simple and quiet straight | Duct slightly thickened ectally | Duct slightly thickened ectally | Very long, muscular, ectal portion strongly muscular | Short, straight with only one loop, thickness three to four times towards ectal end | Fairly short, thick with two or three loops |
| Spermathecal atrium | Small, spherical | Small simple widening of ectal end of duct, conical-, pinecone-shaped, mostly confined to parietes | Absent, slight enlargement duct ectally | Absent, slight enlargment duct ectally | Absent | Absent | Small, sessile on body wall, about oval-shaped, longitudinally placed |
| Ovisacs | Present, extends in three to eight segments in 11–18 | Present, in segment 12 | ? | ? | ? | Present, in 12 | Present, extends in segments 12–13 |
| Distribution | Australia, Bahamas, Chile, Cuba, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Mexico, Micronesia, Nicaragua, New Caledonia, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Samoa, São Tomé and Príncipe, Singapore, Taiwan, Tonga | India, Myanmar, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam | Myanmar | India, Myanmar | Myanmar | Myanmar | India |
Notes
Published as part of Menonardra, Rajendran, Narayanan, S. Prasanth, Kumar, P. Sunil, A. V. Sudhikumar & Thomas, A. P., 2026, A new small Drawida Michaelsen, 1900 (Clitellata: Moniligastridae) species from the Western Ghats of Kerala State, India, pp. 275-276 in Zootaxa 5763 (2) on page 275, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5763.2.6, http://zenodo.org/record/19191471
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Additional details
Identifiers
References
- Beddard F. E. (1886) Notes on some earthworms from Ceylon and the Philippine Islands, including a description of two new species. Annals and Magazine of Natural History, 5 (17), 89-98. https://doi.org/10.1080/00222938609460120
- Rosa, D. (1890) Viaggio di Leonardo Fea in Birmania e regioni vicine, XXV. Moniligastridi, Geoscolecidi ed Eudrilidi. Annali del Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Genova, Serie 2, 9, 368-400.
- Gates, G. E. (1925) Some new earthworms from Rangoon, Burma. - II. Annals and Magazine of Natural History, Series 9, 15 (86), 316-328. https://doi.org/10.1080/00222932508633212
- Gates, G. E. (1929) A summary of the earthworm fauna of Burma with descriptions of fourteen new species. Proceedings of the United States National Museum, 75 (10), 1-41. https://doi.org/10.5479/si.00963801.75-2781.1
- Gates, G. E. (1930) The earthworms of Burma. I. Records of the Indian Museum, 32 (3), 257-356. https://doi.org/10.26515/rzsi/v32/i3/1930/162524
- Gates, G. E. (1962) On some Burmese earthworms of the moniligastrid genus Drawida. Bulletin of the Museum of the Comparative Zoology at Harvard College, 127 (5), 297-373.
- Shen, H-P., Chang, C-H. & Chih, W-J. (2018) Two new earthworm species of the genus Drawida (Oligochaeta: Moniligastridae) from southwestern Taiwan. Zootaxa, 4496 (1), 302-312. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4496.1.25
- Shen, H-P., Csuzdi, C. & Chang, C-H. (2025) A re-examination of the pheretimoid earthworms reported in James et al. (2025), false synonymy between Drawida barwelli (Beddard, 1886) and Drawida beddardi (Rosa, 1890) and comments on recent publications on East and Southeast Asian earthworms. European Journal of Taxonomy, 981, 52-75. https://doi.org/10.5852/ejt.2025.981.2817
- Narayanan, S. P., Paliwal, R., Kurien, V. T., Thomas, A. P. & Julka, J. M. (2023 a) Earthworms (Clitellata: Moniligastrida, Crassiclitellata) of India: Distribution and Status. Department of Printing and Publishing - Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, 378 pp.
- Gates, G. E. (1972) Burmese earthworms, an introduction to the systematic and biology of the megadrile oligochaetes with special reference to Southeast Asia. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 62 (7), 1-326. https://doi.org/10.2307/1006214
- Julka, J. M. (1981) Records of the Zoological Survey of India. Occasional Paper No 26. Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata, 37 pp.
- Chen, Y. (1938) Oligochaeta from Hainan, Kwangtung. Contributions from the Biological Laboratory of the Science Society of China, Zoological Series, 12 (10), 375-427.