A new species and a new subspecies of Amynthas Kinberg, 1867 earthworms (Oligochaeta, Megascolecidae) from northwestern China with data from the mitochondrial genome
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Two new taxa of the earthworm genus Amynthas Kinberg, 1867 are described from northwestern China: Amynthas longnanensis sp. nov . from Longnan, Gansu Province, and Amynthas pectiniferus guanzhongensis ssp. nov . from Weinan, Shaanxi Province. Both belong to the A. sieboldi group, characterized by three pairs of spermathecal pores in 6/7–8/9. Species delimitation based on COI barcoding (ASAP and GMYC) and phylogenetic analysis using mitogenomic protein-coding genes (PCGs) support their recognition as distinct lineages. The mitogenomic phylogeny reveals that the A. sieboldi group as currently defined is not monophyletic. The new findings fill a distributional gap of Amynthas in northwestern China and provide new morphological and molecular data for understanding earthworm diversity.
Source: Subterranean Biology
Institutions: Shenyang Normal University, Langfang Normal University
Language: English
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7202069280