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Our attention was recently drawn to a problem of homonymy with Villiersia d'Orbigny, 1837, a nudibranch genus, posed by Villiersia Omodeo, 1987, an oligochaete genus of the family Haplotaxidae described from the Segea cave near Kindia, Guinea (Omodeo 1987). Examination of this case of homonymy has revived an old nomenclatural issue that dates back to 1958 when several taxa of the family Haplotaxidae were first proposed in a work on the oligochaete fauna of Mount Nimba (West Africa) (Omodeo 1958). A re-examination of the nomenclatural history of these taxa shows that subsequent nomenclatural interpretations made by some were unjustified, leading to a confusing situation. The taxa concerned, as currently accepted (Reynolds Wetzel 2020), are the following:.

The small synanthropic and peregrine earthworm Microscolex phosphoreus (Dugès, 1837) is reported for the first time from Siberia. Morphological and DNA barcode (COI) analyses of this and widely separate samples worldwide demonstrate that, as currently identified, M. phosphoreus is a heterogeneous taxon, with divergent lineages occurring often in the same locality and hardly providing geographically structured genetic signals. The combined morphological and genetic evidence suggests that at least four of the found clades should be reclassified as separate species, both morphologically and genetically distinct from each other. However, as the specimen number was limited and only the COI gene was studied for the genetic work, we hesitate in formally describing new species. There would also be the problem of assigning the available names to specific lineages. Our findings encourage careful external and anatomical examination and using reliable characters such as the interchaetal distances and spermathecal morphology for correct identification and for deeper evaluation of cryptic diversity in this interesting bioluminescent worm.

An in-depth re-evaluation of hormogastrid earthworms inhabiting the Rio Ter Basin near Girona, northeastern Spain, previously assigned to the Hormogaster pretiosa Michaelsen, 1899 complex, resulted in new morpho-anatomical and genetic evidence supporting their recognition as a separate new species. Hormogaster regina sp. n., the largest-bodied species in the Hormogastridae, differs from the type material of H. pretiosa (whose precise locality in Sardinia is unknown) and from most of H. pretiosa -like forms in the authors' collection by having: clitellum and clitellar bands longer, a higher folding of the typhlosole, and different location of thickened and displaced septa. In all these traits, the new species closely resembles a population from the southernmost tip of Sardinia (Cape Teulada). A phylogenetic analysis of mitochondrial markers (COI and 16S-tRNAs) supports such close relationship, yet gives evidence for their status as distinct species. Molecular data, like fine morphology, also shows an unexpected phylogenetic divergence between H. regina sp. n. and its formerly putative relative H. pretiosa hispanica Michaelsen, 1925 from Catalonia, as the latter is recovered in a totally separate and distant cluster. This confirms once again the frequent lack of correlation between genetic and geographic distances in the Hormogastridae, and calls for accurate comparative examinations, with attention to traits of life history and forgotten anatomical details ( e.g ., the peculiar pattern of anterior septa was illustrated by Daniele Rosa in his first description of Hormogaster ), for correct species delimitation and estimations of their relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]