Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
elsewhere (
Table 4.1
). James and others are going back to some of these areas and, with knowledge
of the species that should be present, are conducting more detailed studies
(
e.g., using transects to
assess distributions).
EARTHWORM BIOGEOGRAPHY, DIVERSITY, AND TAXONOMY
In this section, I discuss some of the advances and innovations in oligochaetology during the past
2 years, particularly in those areas in which I have participated either as a journal referee or an
editor, and for which I know, sometimes more than a year or two in advance, what will be appear
in the literature regarding earthworm biogeography, diversity, and taxonomy. I summarize some of
my relevant impressions on these developments.
B
IOGEOGRAPHY
North America
Canada
Considerable advances have been made in the distributional reports of earthworm taxa for many
regions of North America. The first complete picture of the megadrile earthworm distributional
patterns in the Province of Quebec was presented in the early 1990s (Reynolds and Reynolds 1992).
Several earlier reports (Reynolds 1975a,b,c,d; 1976a,c,d) presented segments of the Quebec earth-
worm distribution patterns, but it was not until later (Reynolds and Reynolds 1992) that distribution
over the whole province was considered. In this report, 19 species were recorded for the province,
and
was reported for the first time from two widely separated collections
more than 700 km east of any previously known records.
Scheu and McLean (1993) presented the first report of the earthworm distributions in wide-
ranging areas of southern Alberta. In their article, they reported eight species, with
Sparganophilus eiseni
Lumbricus
rubellus
reported for the first time from the province. They also included considerable discussion
on the ecological aspects of the species in the area.
One of the more interesting and surprising reports was by two Russian scientists working in
Siberia and the Yukon (Berman and Marusik 1994). Until their paper appeared, there were no
published reports on earthworms from these Canadian territories. They found
Bimastos parvus
,
Dendrobaena octaedra
in these far north areas. They presented their
views in great depth on earthworm migrations, isolated populations, and earthworm introductions
in the far north to explain why the Siberian megadrile earthworm fauna is lacking in the Yukon.
Subsequent papers (Reynolds and Moore 1996; Reynolds 2003b,c) have added to the earthworm
species list of the Northwest Territories and the new territory of Nunavut in northern Canada.
, and
Dendrodrilus rubidus
United States
There has been considerable expansion in the knowledge of earthworm distributions in the United
States. There were 37 species recorded (Reynolds 1994b) in the state of Indiana, 10 of which were
reported for the first time. In North Carolina, Reynolds (1994f) reported 42 species, of which 10
were reported for the first time from the state. In Virginia (Reynolds 1994h), another Atlantic coastal
state, 37 species were reported, with 6 species recorded for the first time for the state. Later in that
year, the earthworm distributions in two more southern states, Florida (Reynolds 1994e) and
Mississippi (Reynolds 1994g), were published. In the state of Florida, there were 51 species, and
3 subspecies were reported from 8 families. Of these species, 7 were reported for the first time
from Florida. In the case of Mississippi, 27 species were recorded, and 10 of these were reported
for the first time for the state. The earthworm distributional patterns of several other states and
provinces are currently in preparation (Reynolds and Wetzel 2004b). The scientific and common
names plus the distributional ranges for all the groups in the Clitellata and Aphanoneura have been
described (Coates et al. 1995).
