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This paper describes four new species of earthworms, Amynthas shinanmontis sp. nov., Amynthas chilanensis sp. nov., Amynthas bilineatus sp. nov., and Amynthas cruxus sp. nov. from Taiwan. Amynthas shinanmontis is sexthecate and parthenogenetic with individuals with various levels of degeneration of spermathecae and male reproductive organs. It occurs at elevations of 1700-2700 m in the Central Mountain Range in southern Taiwan. Amynthas bilineatus and A. chilanensis are athecate and also parthenogenetic. They occur, respectively, at elevations of 1000 m in the central region and 1325 m in the northeastern region of Taiwan. Amynthas cruxus is octothecate, amphimictic, and occurs at elevations of 900-1700 m in southern Taiwan. This paper also discusses confusion and dilemma caused by uncertain, speculative synonyms and parthenogenetic morphs in species delimitation in oligochaete taxonomy, and recommends the use of absolute synonyms and phylogenetic species concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes three new species of earthworms belonging to the genus Amynthas (Megascolecidae: Oligochaeta) from eastern Taiwan. They are Amynthas amis sp. nov., Amynthas mutabilitas sp. nov. and Amynthas amplipapillatus sp. nov. Amynthas amis is octothecate with single or paired genital papillae in presetal VII–IX. It is widely distributed at elevations of 245–1500 m south of Mugua River in eastern Taiwan. Amynthas mutabilitas has spermathecae from totally absent (athecate) to two pairs in VI–VII (quadrithecate). It was found on the east slope of the Central Mountain Range and Coastal Mountain Range at elevations of 410–1350 m. Amynthas amplipapillatus is athecate and has large, paired genital papillae in postsetal XVII and often in presetal XIX, and occasionally an additional pair in postsetal XIX. It was found at elevations of 130–1170 m in eastern Taiwan. Also, redescription of Amynthas hongyehensis which is endemic to eastern Taiwan is given. DNA barcodes (the 5'-end sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene) of the first two new species and of A. hongyehensis are also reported. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper describes a new species of gigantic terrestrial earthworm Metaphire taiwanensis sp. nov. from western Taiwan. It reached the maximum length of 860 mm for a living clitellate and 637 mm after preservation. It is an autochthonous species found in Mt Beidongyan and the Meifeng area of the Central Mountain Range at elevations of 1800-2100 m. M. taiwanensis is octothecate and protandric, characters shared by Metaphire stephensoni (Michaelsen) of Indochina, and Metaphire bununa Tsai, Tsai and Liaw and Metaphire paiwanna Tsai, Tsai and Liaw of Taiwan. These four species are combined as a new species-group called the stephensoni -group within the genus Metaphire Sims and Easton. It is closely related to the congeneric ignobilis species-group, which is also octothecate but holandric. It differs from holandric and quadrithecate Metaphire magna (Chen) of Hainan Island, in which the length also reaches 700 mm. Specific variation and evolutionary trends in sizes and segment numbers of the Pheretima genus-group are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a new species of athecate earthworm belonging to the illotus species-group of the genus Amynthas Kinberg from Taiwan. It is Amynthas hohuanmontis sp. nov. from Mt Hohuan at an elevation of 3000 m in the Central Mountain Range. The athecate earthworm Amynthas pusillus (Ohfuchi) from Ishigaki Island, Riukiu is found to be synonymous with Amynthas assacceus (Chen) from Hainan Island, China. Accordingly, the A. illotus species-group currently consists of A. hohuanmontis sp. nov. from Taiwan, A. illotus (Gates) from Yunnan and Riukiu, A. assacceus (Chen) of Hainan and Riukiu, A. sheni (Chen) from Hong Kong and A. oyuensis (Ohfuchi) from Japan. Based on characters of particularly the porophore structure, the five species are divided into two species-subgroups: the sheni species-subgroup of A. sheni and A. hohuanmontis , and the assacceus species-subgroup of A. illotus, A. assacceus and A. oyuensis. The two subgroups might have differentiated from two independent ancestors. The five species show an arc-shaped distribution in the peripheral regions of the East Asian continent (Yunnan, Hainan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Riukiu and Japan), suggesting them to be survivors from the Pleistocene ice ages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Asian land snail species Bensonella plicidens (Benson, 1849) is enigmatic due to its extremely disjunct distribution. That is, it has been reported from the Himalaya, in Eastern China and Japan, and one subspecies was described from Taiwan. This distribution type has not been reported in any other land snails. It is also notable that some specimens identified as B. plicidens have 'normal' plica-like apertural barriers, while others have hook-like projections in the middle of the interrupted barriers, and the hooks point to the outside of the aperture. We examined several Bensonella samples and arrived at the following conclusions: (1) Bensonella plicidens has normal plica-like apertural barriers without hooks, and the Himalayan species with hook-like barriers is a new species, Bensonella hooki Páll-Gergely sp. nov.; (2) the species with hooked barriers recorded from Japan, Taiwan and eastern China differs from both Himalayan species (i.e. Bensonella plicidens and B. hooki sp. nov.), and the name Bensonella lakainguta Hwang, 2014 is available for it; (3) hooked apertural barriers have evolved repeatedly in the Hypselostomatidae and therefore cannot be used as a distinguishing character for the genus Bensonella. Bifidaria (Bensonella) landourensis Pilsbry, 1915 and Boysidia (Bensonella) qingliangfengensis F. Fang, J. Wang and Y. Chen, 2015 are junior synonyms of B. plicidens and B. lakainguta, respectively. Since the type species of Paraboysidia Pilsbry, 1917 and Bensonella Pilsbry and Vanatta, 1900 are very similar in all important shell characters, we consider the former to be a junior synonym of the latter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bathynomus jamesi Kou, Chen and Li, 2017 from Zhengbin fishing port in Keelung, Taiwan, was identified by the shape of the distolateral corner of the uropodal endopod, the shape of the clypeus, and the nucleotide sequences of the COI (cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1) and 16S rRNA genes. Only two species of Bathynomus have previously been recorded from Taiwan, B. doederleini Ortmann, 1894 and B. decemspinosus Shih, 1972. Bathynomus kensleyi, previously known from the South China Sea as well as the south-east Swain Reefs, Coral Sea, was primarily differentiated by the elongate and upturned pleotelson spines, but that character is now shown to also occur in mature Bathynomus jamesi. Two specimens from the Gulf of Mexico (obtained from the Enoshima Aquarium in Japan) were compared to species of Bathynomus from the western North Atlantic. Sequence data showed that one of two samples was not B. giganteus Milne-Edwards, 1879, as had been assumed, and it did not match any other species of Bathynomus. That specimen was collected off the Yucatán Peninsula and is morphologically distinct from both B. giganteus (in the relative length of the antennal flagellum and the length:width ratio of the pleotelson) and B. maxeyorum Shipley, Brooks, and Bruce in Shipley et al., 2016 (the number of pleotelson spines is seven and the distolateral corner is produced on the uropodal exopod). Therefore, it is here described as B. yucatanensis sp. nov. Bathynomus is currently a very minor fisheries resource in Taiwan and Japan, but this find demonstrates the continuing importance of the fishing industry to marine biological exploration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes two new species, each consisting of two subspecies, of protandric, octothecal pheretimoid earthworms from Taiwan. They are Metaphire paiwannasp. nov. typica, Metaphire paiwannavar. liliumfordiI subsp. nov., Metaphire bununasp. nov. typicaand Metaphire bununavar. glareosussubsp. nov. The var. typicaof both new species occurred on the west side of the Central Mountain Range, whereas the subspecies, liliumfordiand glareosus, occurred on the east side of the range. Apparently, the Central Mountain Range constitutes a geographical barrier for isolation and subspeciation. Metaphire paiwannahas a male disc medial to male pore (opening of copulatory pouch) with a horizontal ridge, the character shared by holandric and sexthecal Amynthas swanus(Tsai) of Taiwan and Metaphire aggera(Kobayashi) of Korea and Manchuria, whereas M . bununaresembles more closely holandric, octothecal Metaphire riukiuensis(Ohfuchi) of the Riukiu Islands than protandric, octothecal Metaphire stephensoni(Michaelsen) of Indochina. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lychee gall midge, Litchiomyia chinensis Yang and Luo (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae), invaded Taiwan in 2008. This fly induces blister-galls on the leaves of lychee, Litchi chinensis Sonn (Sapindaceae), and causes significant yield losses. At present, its natural enemy complex is largely undocumented; thus, the overall aim of ongoing research is to investigate the natural enemies on L. chinensis in different areas and seasons in Taiwan. We describe two species that parasitise this gall midge: Quadrastichus lasallei, sp. n. and Quadrastichus johnlasallei, sp. n. that demonstrate biocontrol potential of this pest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The host–parasitoid relationship and species identity of aquatic parasitoids of two damselflies Coeliccia cyanomelas (Platycnemididae) and Psolodesmus mandarinus dorothea (Calopterygidae) from Fushan and Lienhuachih in Taiwan were studied using morphological characters and DNA barcoding sequences. The parasitoids reared from the damselflies' eggs, and the field-collected parasitoids, were morphologically identified as Hydrophylita emporos (Trichogrammatidae), a recently described parasitoid of the damselfly P. m. mandarinus from Northern Taiwan. The CO1 (cytochrome c oxidase I) gene tree supported the identification as H. emporos, as well as all parasitoid samples from C. cyanomelas, P. m. dorothea and P. m. mandarinus. The sampled H. emporos populations did not differ genetically despite their different host associations. However, some genetic differences were found between H. emporos populations from Northern and Central Taiwan, indicating that the dispersal of H. emporos may be limited by geographical distances. Our results suggest that H. emporos can parasitise not only closely related sister subspecies, P. m. mandarinus and P. m. dorothea, but also phylogenetically distant species of another damselfly family, C. cyanomelas. This is the first record of multiple damselfly hosts for the aquatic parasitoid genus Hydrophylita. This finding implies that the host range of H. emporos and congeneric species may be broader than previously thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anagrus nilaparvartae Pang and Wang has been recorded frequently as an egg parasitoid of rice planthoppers in SE Asia, especially of brown planthopper Nilaparvata lugens (Stål). However, what appears to be the same species was often identified either as the morphologically similar Holarctic species Anagrus incarnatosimilis Soyka (as A. incarnatus Haliday) or misidentified as an unrelated, strictly New World species A. flaveolus Waterhouse, which, unlike A. nilaparvartae, does not belong to the A. incarnatus 'species complex' of Anagrus (Anagrus Haliday). Besides being mostly geographically separate from each other (except in the Eastern Palaearctic region), A. nilaparvatae and A. incarnatosimilis were not known to share any hosts. Using a combination of genetic analyses and morphometric methods, specimens of A. incarnatosimilis collected in Europe were shown to be not significantly different from those of A. nilaparvatae reared from eggs of rice planthoppers and leafhoppers mainly in Taiwan and also in Malaysia. Moreover, both A. incarnatosimilis and A. nilaparvatae as well as the morphologically very similar Nearctic species A. columbi Perkins were found to be genetically identical to the common Palaearctic species A. incarnatus Haliday based on both CO1 (mitochondrial) and ITS2 (nuclear) gene regions. Consequently, A. columbi Perkins syn. n. and A. nilaparvatae Pang and Wang syn. n. are synonymised under A. incarnatus, which is re-diagnosed and illustrated. Anagrus incarnatosimilis Soyka stat. rev. (along with its eight current synonyms) is reinstated as a synonym of A. incarnatus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]