Acanthodrilidae Claus 1880

• Main Authors: Misirlioğlu, Mete, Reynolds, John Warren, Stojanović, Mirjana, Trakić, Tanja, Sekulić, Jovana, James, Samuel W., Csuzdi, Csaba, Decaëns, Thibaud, Lapied, Emmanuel, Phillips, Helen R. P., Cameron, Erin K., Brown, George G.
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Published: Zenodo 2023
• Subjects: Biodiversity; Taxonomy; Animalia; Annelida; Clitellata; Crassiclitellata; Acanthodrilidae; Antarc*; Antarctic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7747032; http://treatment.plazi.org/id/7D2487ECFFB91B7BFF3EFB44FAEFFE2C

Acanthodrilidae Claus, 1880 The Acanthodrilidae is the second most speciose earthworm family – 746 species and 48 subspecies in 68 genera. Csuzdi (1996) divided it into three subfamilies: Acanthodrilinae, Octochaetinae and Benhamiinae, but the molecular work of James and Davidson (2012) provided evidence that suggested raising the Behamiinae to family level (Benhamiidae). Hence, we consider Benhamiidae as a separate family here. Diplocardinae Michaelsen 1899 has been proposed, but differently defined. The African, Central and South American, and Austral-Asian octochaetine worms surely belong to Acanthodrilinae (Buckley et al. 2011; James & Davidson 2012). Various other subfamilies were proposed by Blakemore (2013), but to date there has been limited acceptance of these subfamilies due to unresolved taxonomic issues and disagreement, and pending further molecular work within the Acanthodrilidae (see Fragoso & Rojas 2016, 2019). The endemic taxa of Acanthodrilinae can be found throughout the southern continents (South America, South Africa, Madagascar, Australia, New Zealand, New Caledonia and the Antarctic Islands), as well as in the USA, Mexico and the Caribbean Islands (Fragoso & Rojas 2016, 2019; Buckley et al. 2011). However, they are completely missing from Europe and the Northern part of Asia (the Palearctic Region). This widely distributed Gondwanan subfamily includes 41 genera and ca. 580 species (updated from Fragoso & Rojas 2016). From continental Central America and the Caribbean Islands and Mexico, we know 14 genera ( Balanteodrilus , Borgesia, Diplocardia, Diplotrema, Exxus, Kaxdrilus , Larsonidrilus , Lavellodrilus , Mayadrilus , Protozapotecia , Neotrigaster, Trigaster, Zapatadrilus, Zapotecia ) and around 120 species (Fragoso & Rojas 2016, 2018, 2019; Cervantes et al. 2016). Further endemic genera are found in Eastern African countries and in Madagascar ( Howascolex and Vazimbascolex , with four and one species, respectively; Csuzdi et al. 2016; Hong et al. 2019). In USA and ...