Exploring new records of Eutyphoeus sp. (haplotaxida: Octochaetidae) from garo hills, Meghalaya, North Eastern state of India with use of DNA barcodes.

Abstract

The work was aimed to investigate earthworms species particularly Eutyphoeus endemic to India with the use of DNA barcodes and usual morpho-anatomical standards of earthworm taxonomy from protected areas of Garo Hills, Meghalaya, the north-east region (NER) of India. The study revealed two new records Eutyphoeus kempi Stephenson, E. nepalensis Michaelsen and confirms availability of three known sp. namely E. callosus Gates, E. gammiei Beddard and E. turaensis Stephenson. The neighbor-joining tree was constructed using the K2P substitution model and the genomic signature of each species using COI-1 gene was generated for the first time and were used to reconfirm the identification of species.