Account of montane and insular speciation in some Korean megadriles (Annelida: Oligochaeta)

Abstract

In the spirit of Kobayashi (1936; 1937; 1938; 1941) and Easton (1981), the current work contributes to the first author’s current Japanese and Korean studies, e.g. Blakemore (2003; 2008; 2012a-f; 2013a; 2013b; 2014), and attempts to use genetic barcodes of primary types or neotypes for definitive species identity (Hebert et al., 2003; Blakemore, 2013c). Current specimens are from mountains such as Seoraksan (alt. 1,708 m) the highest mountain in the 500 km Taebaek Range that edges the east coast as far down as Busan and the third highest after Hallasan and Jirisan in the south. Further collection was at nearby Bangtaesan (alt. 1,444 m) and Jeombongsan (alt. 1,424 m). Islands were also sampled, and the briefest of surveys on the isle of Muuido near Incheon unearthed two new species: a megascolecid Amynthas muuido sp. nov. and a lumbricid Eisenia muuido sp. nov., the latter comparable to endemic Eisenia koreana (Zicsi, 1972) that was surprisingly overlooked in Hong’s (2000) incomplete review of Korean Lumbricidae (compare his nine or ten spp. to the twenty listed in Blakemore, 2014). The current paper complements an update of moniligastrid Drawida spp. in Blakemore et al. (2014).