Bhubaneswar: In a groundbreaking discovery, researchers from the Central University of Odisha (CUO), Koraput, in collaboration with scientists from Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, Kerala, unearthed two previously unknown species of Megascolex earthworms from the Eastern Ghats of Odisha.
During an earthworm diversity study conducted in different parts of Koraput, Ayusmita Naik collected some large earthworm specimens from Rani Duduma and the Jeypore Ghati area of Koraput. Under the supervision of Prof Sharat Kumar Palita, Dean of the School of Biodiversity and Conservation of Natural Resources of the Central University of Odisha (CUO), Koraput, the specimens were carefully examined in the laboratory by the researchers.
Later with the support of Dr R Paliwal, retired scientist of the Zoological Survey of India, and earthworm specialists Dr Prasantha Narayanan and Dr AP Thomas of Advanced Centre of Environmental Studies and Sustainable Development, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, Kerala, these two large earthworm varieties were identified as two new species, which are completely new to science. They were identified as Megascolexjeyporeghatiensis and Megascolexquadripappilatus. The report of these two new species from Koraput has been published in the reputed international taxonomic journal Zootaxa.
These two new earthworm species belong to Genus Megascolex discovered from relatively under-explored Eastern Ghats hills of Odisha state in Peninsular India. They belong to a group of species characterised by two pairs of spermathecal pores in intersegmental furrows 7/8/9, holandric, seminal vesicles in segments 9 and 12, absence of penial setae and calciferous glands. These two new species occur in deciduous forests with brownish gravel-loamy soils.
