A further contribution to the taxonomy of the genus Tubificoides Lastockin (Oligochaeta: Tubificidae)

Abstract

The species of the genus Tubificoides with hair setae and with at least some bifid setae as opposed to pectinate setae in the dorsal bundles are reviewed. Tubificoides insularis (Stephenson) is removed from synonymy with T. benedii (d'Udekem), and T. apectinatus (Brinkhurst) is divided into that species and two new species, Tubificoides pseudapectinatus and T. parapectinatus. Four other new species are described, T. imajimai, T. swirencoides, T. scoticus, and T. bakeri. Three other taxa are described but not named because of lack of adequate material. Tubificoides amplivasatus (Erseus) is reported from Scotland. Nearly all Tubificoides species have more limited distributions than were apparent when the genus was expanded by Brinkhurst and Baker (1979. Can. J. Zool. 57: 1553–1569).