Two new earthworm species discovered in Silent Valley

Researchers have discovered two new earthworm species in Silent Valley, highlighting its biodiversity significance in the Western Ghats.

Highlighting the rich biodiversity of Silent Valley National Park in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve (NBR) of the Western Ghats mountain chain, a team of researchers has discovered two previously unknown species of moniligastrid earthworms.

Belonging to two different genera — Moniligaster, which is endemic to Western Ghats, and Drawida- of the family Moniligastridae, the earthworms have been named Moniligaster girishi and Drawida reynoldsi, respectively. The discovery has been published in the peer-reviewed journal Zootaxa.

Moniligaster girishi. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

The new species — M. girishi and D. reynoldsi — are named in honour of P. Girish Kumar, a scientist at the Zoological Survey of India’s Western Ghats Regional Centre, Kozhikode, for his significant contributions to the taxonomic studies of wasps (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) in India, and John Warren Reynolds, an eminent Canadian earthworm specialist, for his remarkable contributions to the study of North American earthworms.

While the specimen of M. girishi was collected from the tropical wet evergreen forest near Chembotti, the specimen of D. reynoldsi was collected from the montane grassland between Sispara and Anginda. With the inclusion of the two newly identified species, India’s moniligastrid fauna now comprises 95 recognised species, many of which have been discovered from the Western Ghats in recent decades.

The discovery of M. girishi and D. reynoldsi raises the number of moniligastrid species known from Western Ghats to 70 (54 Drawida and 16 Moniligaster species), signifying the importance of this region as a biodiversity hotspot for the moniligastrid earthworms.