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Sludge worm samples were collected from the Tigers River sediment during the period from November 2018 to June 2019 in Al Sarafiya District/ Baghdad- Iraq. Biometric morphological measurements focusing on the form of penis sheath and chaetal morphology were used for species identification, in addition to molecular analysis by amplification of conserved 18s rRNA encoding gene using ITS1 and ITS4 universal primers.According to the morphological measurement records, the results revealed the existence of Limnodrilus hoffmeisteri Claparede 1862, L. claparedeianus Ratzel, 1868 and L. cervix Brinkhurst 1963. Other two groups of specimens, with short penis sheath, were identified by molecular technology as L. hoffmeisteri complex, and L. claparedeianus.-cervix. Both species were considered as new record for Iraqi fauna, and had been registered in NCBI under the accession number LC497073 and LC497074 respectively According to the morphological measurements records, the results revealed the existence of Limnodrilus hoffmeisteri Claparede 1862, L. claparedeianus Ratzel, 1868 and L. cervix Brinkhurst 1963, which identified by molecular analysis using 18S rRNA gene and DNA sequencing recorded L. hoffmeisteri complex, This species is a new record in Iraq, and has been registered in NCBI under the accession number LC497073. There was also specimen identified by molecular analysis using 18S rRNA gene and DNA sequencing recorded L. Claparedeianus –cervix. Also, this species is a new record in Iraq, and has been registered in NCBI under the accession number LC497074. ــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ Keyword: Limnodrilus hoffmeisteri complex, Iraq, LC497073, NCBI, Limnodrilus hoffmeisteri, L. Claparedeianus, L. cervix, L. Claparedeianus –cervix, LC 497073. *Part of M.Sc. Thesis of Research Sludge worms samples were collected from the Tigers River sediment in Al Sarafiya district, / Baghdad- Iraq. Biometric morphological measurement focusing on the form of penis sheath and chaetal morphology, in addition to molecular analysis using 18s rRNA gene, were used for species identification. According to the morphological measurements records, the results revealed the existence of two groups of Limnodrilus hoffmeisteri Claparède 1862 Individuals have long penis sheath with distal end with symmetrical or asymmetrical hood, while other individuals with short penis sheath with circular plate- like hood, which identified by molecular analysis as L. hoffmeisteri complex, and the isolate 18S rRNA recorded with the accession number LC497073 Two groups of very long penis sheath identified as L. claparedeianus Ratzel, 1868, and L. cervix Brinkhurst 1963, with dorsal and ventral projections. There are also a group of specimens with short penis sheath, which identified by molecular techniques as L. Claparedeianus –cervix 18S rRNA encoding genomic sequence was resented to the NCBI, recorded with the accession number LC497074. Limnodrilus hoffmeisteri complex and L. claparedeianus – cervix were considered as new records for Iraq.

The phylogenetic relationships within Naidinae (Annelida, Clitellata, Naididae) were investigated, using six molecular markers, both mitochondrial (12S rDNA, 16S rDNA, the COI gene) and nuclear (18S rDNA, 28S rDNA, the ITS region). Thirty-seven nominal species, representing 16 of the 22 genera recognized in the subfamily, were included, and the Nais communis/variabilis species complex was represented by six different morphotypes. Ten other species of Naididae were selected as outgroups. The data were analysed by Bayesian inference and Maximum Likelihood. The phylogeny corroborates monophyly of the Naidinae, and the separate status of the genus Pristina (Pristininae) and the Opistocystinae. Relationships within Naidinae are largely well supported, but in some parts unexpected: (1) A clade containing the largely tropical genera Dero and Branchiodrilus is sister to the rest of the subfamily, and together with a third tropical genus, Allonais, they form a basal paraphyly. All these genera show morphological adaptations to environmental hypoxia, leading to the conclusion that Naidinae originated in tropical freshwaters. (2) The genera Dero, Nais and Piguetiella are paraphyletic. (3) At least Branchiodrilus, Paranais, Chaetogaster, Nais, Stylaria appear to contain cryptic species. Morphological characters, especially those associated with chaetae, are to a great extent homoplastic within Naidinae, which certainly has contributed to the overall taxonomic confusion of this subfamily.

The non-native oligochaete Ripistes parasita (Schmidt) (Annelida: Clitellata: Naididae) has previously been reported from the northeastern United States and Mississippi. The objective of this study was to provide information regarding the spread of the invasive oligochaete within the past 32 years. We examined benthic invertebrate data from various biomonitoring projects conducted in several eastern states. Results show a significant range extension for this species.

Limnodrilus species are annelid worms distributed worldwide in various freshwater sediments. The systematics of Limnodrilus has chiefly been based on morphology, but the genus has not been subject to any closer phylogenetic studies over the past two decades. To reconstruct the evolutionary history of Limnodrilus, and to assess the monophyly of this genus and its systematic position within the subfamily Tubificinae (Annelida: Clitellata: Naididae), 45 Limnodrilus specimens, representing 19 species, and 35 other naidid species (representing 24 genera) were sampled. The data consisted of sequences of three mitochondrial genes (COI, 12S and 16S rDNA) and four nuclear markers (18S and 28S rDNA, Histone 3, and ITS). The phylogeny was estimated, using Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian analyses of concatenated data of seven DNA loci, as well as a multi-locus coalescent-based approach. All analyses strongly suggest that Limnodrilus is monophyletic, but only if the morphospecies L. rubripenis is removed from it. Limnodrilus rubripenis and (at least) Baltidrilus, Lophochaeta and some species attributed to Varichaetadrilus comprise the sister group to the clade Limnodrilus sensu stricto, and the latter is further divided into three well-supported groups. One of them contains morphospecies characterized by short cuticular penis sheaths and enlarged chaetae in anterior segments (L. udekemianus, L. silvani and L. grandisetosus). The second is a small group of species with moderately long penis sheaths, i.e., L. sulphurensis and L. profundicola. The third, and largest group, includes not only the multitude of cryptic species in the L. hoffmeisteri complex, but also other, morphologically distinct, species nested within this complex. All studied species in this large group have long penis sheaths, which are exceptionally long in L. claparedianus, L. maumeensis, and a form morphologically intermediate between L. claparedianus and L. cervix. The identification and classification of these groups provide a framework for directed sampling in further phylogenetic studies, and for revisionary work on the L. hoffmeisteri complex and other unresolved Limnodrilus species.

Species distribution models have become widespread in benthic ecology; however, they have mostly been applied to marine and lentic systems. In this study, we applied a maximum entropy model by using remote sensing-derived environmental variables to predict the distribution of 4 major benthic communities dominated by Tubificidae, Naididae, Echinogammarus ischnus, and Dreissena spp, respectively, in the lower Niagara River, NY, USA. The model showed very good accuracy for benthic communities with a narrow distribution range (Tubificidae and Naididae) indicated by the area under the curve test values of 0.906 and 0.987, respectively. In contrast, the model showed poor performance for E. ischnus and Dreissena indicated by the low area under the curve values of 0.615 and 0.618, respectively. Both communities are known to cope with a wide variety of environmental factors and habitats, making their accurate predictions difficult using presence-only data. Our results can further be used to locate important feeding grounds for higher trophic levels, to assess the potential spread of exotic species, and to identify areas for restoration.

Metazoans contributed historically to the decline of the microbialites and continue to restrict their formation in most modern environments through grazing and burrowing pressures. Recent evidence suggests that metazoans can coexist with layered microbialites (stromatolites). However, the possible drivers of the invertebrate assemblage directly associated with these unique habitats are not well-understood. This study measured environmental and resource variables within peritidal stromatolites along the South African coastline and related these to the infaunal metazoan community. Clitellates (Naididae and Enchtraeidae), malacostracans (Amphipoda, Isopoda and Tanaidacea), insect larvae (Chironomidae), and polychaetes (Nereididae) were the most abundant groups. The benthic macrofaunal community was most strongly related to salinity, nutrients (dissolved inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus) and macroalgal cover. This suggests that the distribution of some species was restricted by physiological tolerances associated with salinity, while others responded to resource variability within the primary producer community. The absence of an apparent relationship between stromatolite microalgal biomass or composition and the metazoan community occupying the matrix indicates that the invertebrates might be relying on other primary producers as a food resource, such as macroalgae. This suggests that the benthic macrofaunal community may have a limited direct grazing effect on the stromatolite matrix, thereby not hindering the formation of its typical layered fabric.

Summary This paper presents new findings on oligochaete species inhabiting Polish brackish waters. Identification of 455 specimens collected in September 2013 and July 2014 during the macrozoobenthos survey in the Port of Gdynia (the Gulf of Gdansk, the southern Baltic Sea, Poland) showed the presence of six species belonging to two subfamilies Naidinae and Tubificinae.

The ecological quality of the Tota River was evaluated during August 2007 and February 2008 and compared to the upper part from Bogota River between October 2013 and January 2014, by applying the BMWP/Col and ABI indexes. The sampling points corresponding to the high, medium and low part of the longitudinal gradient. In the Tota River, 27 families were determined corresponding to 11 orders, where the most abundant were Baetidae (25.43 %), Leptohyphidae (16.43 %), Naididae (13.76 %), Chironomidae (11.42 %) and Hyalellidae (10.30 %). In the upper course of Bogota River, 32 families were determined to conform 13 orders, where the most abundant were Chironomidae (28.94 %), Leptoceridae (25.20 %), Naididae (18.34 %) and Simuliidae (8.63 %). In the river Tota, The BMWP/Col. The index showed a good status, while the ABI index exhibited an acceptable quality. On the other hand, in the upper part of the Bogota River, both the BMWP/Col. and ABI showed variations in quality between acceptable and very critical. The CCA for the Tota River exhibited correlations between temperature and conductivity with the families Hyalellidae and Leptohyphidae while the stream flow was linked with the family Sphaeriidae. On the other hand, in the upper part of Bogota River the stream flow, conductivity and temperature were correlated with the occurrence of the family Veliidae. Our results showed that the ABI index is more sensitive to impacts that the BMWP/Col index is showing its ability to evaluate the Andean mountain systems.

Some naidid oligochaetes establish commensal relationships with species of molluscs worldwide. In the present study, we report the finding of Chaetogaster limnaei in Illapel River, northern Chile. This worm was found inhabiting the mantle cavity of the freshwater gastropod Physa acuta , an invasive species in this country. The taxonomic status of C. limnaei was confirmed by molecular analysis based on mitochondrial 16S ribosomal RNA gene.

Comunidades de invertebrados bentônicos presentes no ambiente podem indicar a influência dos impactos ambientais causados pelas atividades humanas. Algumas espécies da Classe Oligochaeta são consideradas eficientes bioindicadores de avaliação da poluição orgânica da água. Assim, o presente estudo objetivou avaliar a qualidade da água em duas nascentes (pontos Córrego do Tanquinho e Córrego da Caixa D’água) localizadas no perímetro urbano do município de Araraquara-SP por meio do estudo da oligofauna. As coletas ocorreram entre os meses de março e abril de 2017. As amostras foram coletadas em três pontos de cada manancial com o auxílio de um amostrador do tipo rede em “D” (250 µm) pelo método de varredura. A oligofauna triada em laboratório foi fixada em formalina 10% e, após, identificada até o nível taxonômico de espécie. Adicionalmente, variáveis físicas e químicas das nascentes foram medidas em campo (pH, temperatura da água, condutividade elétrica, oxigênio dissolvido e sólidos totais dissolvidos). A identificação da oligofauna revelou um total de 280 organismos distribuídos em 19 táxons. Foram identificadas 14 espécies pertencentes a quatro famílias: Alluroididae, Enchytraeidae, Naididae e Tubificidae. Ambas as nascentes apresentaram valores próximos para as variáveis ambientais, contudo, condutividade elétrica e sólidos totais dissolvidos sugeriram uma diferenciação representativa nos valores obtidos. De forma conclusiva, o ponto NCD apresentou preciso grau de impacto, evidenciando um pontual processo de degradação do meio, ao passo que, a somatória das análises realizadas para o ponto NT mostrou que ele não apresenta estágio significativo de poluição.

Lake Baikal is populated by an endemic genus of oligochaetes (Baikalodrilus), which currently comprises 24 morphospecies. The genus can be considered as a ‘species flock’. However, the validity of many species is questionable: the great similarity in their description and the lack of unequivocal diagnostic characters often lead species identification to an impasse. In order to clarify the systematics of this genus, we analysed two nuclear and two mitochondrial DNA markers of 40 Baikalodrilus specimens. DNA and morphological approaches are mostly congruent in suggesting ten candidate species, although two additional species are suspected. A reassessment of the taxonomic value of the morphological characteristics of Baikalodrilus suggests that there are few that can be used as distinctive, specific criteria in the genus. The association between candidate and nominal species remains problematic, except for three species identified prior to molecular analyses. Baikalodrilus trituberculum sp. nov. is described. Phylogenetic inferences suggests that the earliest split in Baikalodrilus and the time of divergence of most lineages corresponding to species are consistent with the hypothesis of a general rearrangement of the Baikal fauna, following major environmental changes due to a general cooling in the Early Pleistocene.

Populations of Limnodrilus sulphurensis Fend, Liu & Erseus, 2016 (Naididae, Oligochaeta) were found on sulphur bacterial mats in a stream with sulphidic and hypoxic water in Sulphur Cave, Colorado (USA). In order to reveal adaptations to the hostile conditions, we assessed physical and chemical factors in reference to anatomical and physiological details of L. sulphurensis and compared with the common L. hoffmeisteri from non-sulphidic waters. Sections and 3D reconstructions of the posterior body of L. sulphurensis showed an extensively ramified integumental blood system and an extraordinarily rich circumintestinal chloragogue tissue. This contained accumulations of sulphide and iron. These features coincided with an unusual blood physiology of these haemoglobin-containing annelids living under permanent sulphide exposure. The blood of L. sulphurensis has a high oxygen binding capacity and the binding sites seem unaffected by sulphide (sulphhaemoglobin is not formed). Exposure experiments indicated oxidation of sulphide to thiosulphate, which can be easily released. Hplc analysis of the chloragosomes showed the presence of haemin (presumably haematin), a known catalyst of sulphide oxidation. L. sulphurensis shares these features with many marine “sulfide-annelids”. For the freshwater realm these data are novel. The proposed “sulfur-haeme scenario” would explain the unrivalled existence of L. sulphurensis under sulphidic conditions.

Oligochaeta are still characterized as a poorly studied group among the aquatic macroinvertebrates and few studies about their ecology were conducted in Brazil. Thus, our study aimed to provide an overview of the association between Oligochaeta and macrophytes, in Brazilian continental aquatic environments, by means of a literature review along with an inventory of species associated to aquatic macrophytes on marginal lagoons in the reservoir Ribeirão das Anhumas (Américo Brasiliense, São Paulo, Brazil). In the review, we analyzed 10 articles, where we obtained data on 41 species. We also sampled 5 macrophyte genera, Egeria, Salvinia, Utricularia, Eleocharis, and Ceratophyllum, from August to December 2012 and in March and April 2013, in the reservoir Ribeirão das Anhumas. We registered 21 Oligochaeta species associated to these macrophytes. With the data obtained in the review along with the inventory of the reservoir Ribeirão das Anhumas, we found a total of 41 species associated to aquatic macrophytes, with a higher richness of the Naididae family (93.33%), followed by Opistocystidae (4.44%), and Alluroididae (2.22%). Our study inventoried about 48% of the Oligochaeta diversity registered in continental ecosystems in Brazil, thus highlighting the significance of macrophytes as a resource for these invertebrates, mainly for the Naididae family. Oligoquetos ainda são caracterizados como um grupo pouco estudado dentre os macroinvertebrados aquáticos e poucos estudos sobre sua ecologia foram realizados no Brasil. Assim, nosso estudo objetivou fornecer um panorama da associação entre Oligochaeta e macrófitas, em ambientes aquáticos continentais brasileiros, por meio de uma revisão da literatura junto a um inventário de espécies associadas a macrófitas aquáticas em lagoas marginais da represa Ribeirão das Anhumas (Américo Brasiliense-SP). Na revisão, analisamos 10 artigos, nos quais obtivemos dados sobre 41 espécies. Amostramos, ainda, cinco gêneros de macrófitas, Egeria, Salvinia, Utricularia, Eleocharis e Ceratophyllum, de agosto e dezembro de 2012 e em março e abril de 2013, na represa Ribeirão das Anhumas. Registramos 21 espécies de Oligochaeta associadas a essas macrófitas. Com os dados obtidos na revisão junto ao inventário da represa Ribeirão das Anhumas, evidenciamos o total de 41 espécies associadas a macrófitas aquáticas, com maior riqueza da família Naididae (93,33%), seguida por Opistocystidae (4,44%) e Alluroididae (2,22%). Nosso estudo inventariou cerca de 48% da diversidade de Oligochaeta registrados em ecossistemas continentais no Brasil, destacando, assim, a importância das macrófitas como recurso para esses invertebrados, principalmente para a família Naididae.

ismail - [2010] 11.5606 Tubificids are aquatic oligochaete worms (F- Naididae, O- Haplotaxida, P- Annelida) distributed all over the world. The worms are very important as they are used as live food for fish and other aquatic invertebrates. A step was taken to identify the genera of tubicifid worms that exist in Mymensingh district, Bangladesh on the basis of some external features including the shape of their anterior (prostomium) and posterior end, number of body segment and arrangement of setae. The study result indicated the existence of three genera among the tubificid worms. These were Tubifex , Limnodrilus and Aulodrilus . All these three genera possessed a cylindrical body with a bilateral symmetry formed by a series of metameres. The number of body segments ranged from 34 to 120 in Tubifex , 50 to 87 in Limnodrilus , and 35 to 100 in Aulodrilus . In Tubifex , the first segment, with the prostomium, was round or triangular bearing appendages, whereas, in Limnodrilus and Aulodrilus , the prostomium without appendages was triangular and conical, respectively. Three types of setae i.e., hair setae, pectinate setae and bifid setae of various sizes were found in Tubifex , whereas, Limnodrilus possessed pectinate setae and bifid setae of more or less similar size and shape; and Aulodrilus possessed only hair setae and bifid setae of different size. Asian J. Med. Biol. Res. March 2016, 2(1): 27-32 Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;}

Bioremediation is a promising method for remediating environmentally polluted water. We investigated the abilities of two benthic annelid species to biotransform 1-nitronaphthalene, a nitrated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon. We used an oligochaete, Thalassodrilides sp. (Naididae), collected from the sediment beneath a fish farm and a polychaete, Perinereis nuntia, which was obtained from a commercial source. Populations of both organisms were exposed to 1400 μg L(-1) of 1-nitronaphthalene in seawater for 3 days in the dark at 20 °C. The concentration of the pollutant decreased to 12 μg L(-1) in the seawater containing the Thalassodrilides sp. and to 560 μg L(-1) in the seawater containing P. nuntia. The 1-nitronaphthalene concentration in the bodies of the animals increased from 12 to 94 μg kg(-1) in Thalassodrilides sp. and from 0.90 μg kg(-1) to 38,000 μg kg(-1) in P. nuntia. After 3 days, 99% and 40% of the 1-nitronaphthalene had been biotransformed in the Thalassodrilides sp. and P. nuntia experimental groups, respectively. We then tested the acute toxicity of residual 1-nitronaphthalene from the same water using mummichog (fish) larvae. After the larvae had been exposed for 96 h, the percentage of apparently unaffected larvae remaining was 83.3% in Thalassodrilides sp. group but only 16.7% in the P. nuntia group. Clearly, of the two species we studied, Thalassodrilides sp. had a superior ability to convert 1-nitronaphthalene into substances that were nontoxic to mummichog larvae. Therefore, we recommend the use of this species for bioremediation of chemically polluted sediments.

Türkiye’nin özellikle doğu bölgelerinin Oligochaeta faunası hakkında bilgiler oldukça sınırlıdır. Bu bölgede yer alan Dicle Nehri, tarih boyunca önemli bir akarsudur ve antik Mezopotomya uygarlıklarının temel kaynaklarından biri olmuştur. Türkiye’nin doğusunda ve Elazığ şehrinin yaklaşık 25 km güneydoğusunda yer alan Toros Dağları’ndan doğan nehrin yaklaşık uzunluğu 1900 km’dir. Ancak bu nehrin sucul makrozoobentik faunası, sahip olduğu zorlu coğrafik ve morfolojik şartlar nedeniyle yeterince araştırılamamıştır. Yapılan bu çalışmada, Dicle Nehri’nin Türkiye’de kalan bölümünde Oligochaeta faunası bakımından bu açıklığı kapatmak ve daha sonraki çalışmalara temel oluşturabilecek bir ön çalışma yapılması hedeflenmiştir. Çalışma sonunda 19’u Naididae (13 takson Naidinae, 6 takson Tubificinae) ve 6’ sı Enchytraeidae familyalarına ait olmak üzere toplam 25 takson belirlenmiştir. Çalışma alanında daha önce Oligochaeta faunasının belirlenmesine yönelik herhangi bir çalışma yapılmadığından tespit edilen taksonlar nehir için yeni kayıt niteliğindedir

Lake Al-Delmage is part of the middle section of a main outfall drain located south of Baghdad (Iraq). This study focuses on the community structure of aquatic annelids and the physico-chemical variables in this lake. Six stations along the lake were chosen for sample collection in the period from January 2013 to January 2014. The results revealed that the lake water is oligohaline, with salinity levels ranging from 1.5 to 14.6 ‰ and temperatures ranging from 9°C to 33°C; hydrogen ion concentrations (as pH) ranging between 7 and 9. Water was well aerated with dissolved oxygen concentrations values ranging between 6 and 12 mg L−1, and BOD values ranging between 1.5 and 3 mg L−1. The lake water was considered as very hard, since the total hardness values ranging between 825 and 8466 mg L−1. From samples collected during the study period, 1,885 aquatic annelid specimens were identified. Of these, 58% belonged to the family Aeolosomatidae (Polychaeta); the remaining taxa belonged to subfamilies of the family Naididae (Oligochaeta - Clitellata): subfamily Naidinae (6%), subfamily Tubificinae (36%), and subfamily Rhyacodrilinae, Branchiura sowerbyi (3%). Two species of Aeolosomatidae were recognized, Aeolosoma hemprichi and Aeolosoma variegatum. Naidid worms of the subfamily Naidinae included three species, Paranais litoralis, Dero (Aulophorus) furcatus, and Stylaria lacustris. The highest frequency percentage of 23.6% was recorded for P. litoralis. The subfamily Tubificinae was represented by five species - Limnodrilus hoffmeisteri, L. profundicola, L. claparedeanus, L. udekemianus, and Tubifex tubifex. Limnodrilus claparedeanus was the most abundant species, comprising 53% of the total number of Tubificinae. Seasonal fluctuations showed spatial and temporal variations of species richness. The highest species richness was recorded in the stations near the feeder canal, and temporally during June and October 2013.

In this paper, we described the clitellate fauna from an underwater hydrothermal vent zone in Frolikha Bay (Northern Baikal), where a unique community of oligochaetes dominate the zoobenthic communities. In total, twenty one oligochaete species were collected and of these, 19 species belong to the Naididae (former Tubificidae). In addition, one species belonging to the Propappidae, Propappus glandulosus, and another, widespread in the lake, to the Lumbriculidae, Lumbriculus achaetus, were identified. High indices of oligochaete development were revealed in the study which are uncharacteristic for the abyssal zone of Lake Baikal. The hypothesis of possible dependence of species composition and quantitative characteristics of oligochaetes on the development of bacteria Thioploca in the area was not confirmed.

This work deals with the study of the oligochaete groundwater biodiversity in the Dinaric region, a karstic territory extending along the oriental shores of the Adriatic sea. Historical and new data depict a fauna of 123 species, 36 of which are stygobiotic. About 60% of the stygobionts are endemic to this region. Trichodrilus Claparede (Lumbriculidae) and Rhyacodrilus Bretscher (Rhyacodrilinae, Naididae) appear as highly diversified genera (13 and 10 species respectively); their diversification and radiative evolution in ground waters of the Dinaric region can be in relation with the fresh and stable temperatures in this environment, linked to isolate patches of karst. The presence of Parvidrilidae and Rhyacodriloidinae (Naididae) in this region is specially noteworthy; the parvidrilids are a groundwater Holarctic family present in Alabama (USA) and southern Europe and the rhyacodriloidines are a small Palaearctic group found in Lake Baikal and ground waters of the Limestone Alps (Italy) and the Dinaric karst of Slovenia and Croatia. The Phallodrilinae (Naididae) are represented in the Dinaric region by two species of Spiridion Knollner and two species of Abyssidrilus Erseus; both these genera seem to be representatives of two ways of colonization of continental ground waters, the former by migration through waters of decreasing salinity, and the later following the Regression model based on sea transgression and regression. Ground waters of the Dinaric region are confirmed as one of the most important hotspots of biodiversity in the world also for the oligochaete fauna.

A species of marine limnodriloidine oligochaete, Thalassodrilides cf. briani Erseus, 1992 , is recorded from gravelly sand sediments of the subtidal zone in Ehime Prefecture, Japan. The present material agrees with the original description of T. briani, which was first found at Hong Kong, with the exception that the copulatory sacs are oval; not slender. Despite the lack of genetic data for the Hong Kong population, we conclude that the Japanese specimens are conspecific with it, or at least very closely related, based on morphological considerations. This is the first record of the genus Thalassodrilides Brinkhurst and Baker, 1979 in Japan. The phylogenetic relationships between T. cf. briani and three other species of Thalassodrilides are estimated, based on partial DNA sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene and the complete nuclear ribosomal Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS) region, using two members of the closely related genus Doliodrilus Erseus, 1984 as outgroups. The genetic analysis shows that T. cf. briani is a species delimited by both mitochondrial and nuclear data, and clearly separated from at least its closely related congeners in the Northwest Atlantic (Caribbean and adjacent areas).

Up to now 17 alien species of family Naididae have been found in Poland. The majority of them have a Ponto-Caspian origin (Potamothrix hammoniensis, P. moldaviensis, P. heuscheri, P. vejdovskyi, P. bavaricus, P. bedoti, Psammoryctides barbatus, P. albicola, P. moravicus, Tubifex newaensis, Isochaetides michaelseni, Paranais simplex and P. frict). Moreover, North American (Quistadrilus multisetosus, Limnodrilus cervix) and thermophilic species from Asia (Branchiura sowerbyi) and South Europe or North Africa (Tubifex blanchardi) have been recorded. Almost all alien species are known from a small number of localities, except for Potamothrix hammoniensis, P. moldaviensis, Psammoryctides barbatus and P. albicola, but only the first of these seems to be an invasive species influencing the composition of benthic communities in the profundal of lakes.

A qualitative survey of freshwater Oligochaeta was conducted in selected districts of Tamil Nadu, India, from October 2013 to June 2015. Thirteen taxa were recorded from a total of 1,915 specimens of freshwater Oligochaeta examined from various random samples. Out of the 13 taxa 10 were identified to the species level, two were identified to genus level and one only to subfamily level. These provided the first reports of Aulophorus furcatus, Dero digitata, D. zeylanica (Naididae) and Pristina breviseta (Pristinidae) for Villupuram, Bothrioneurum sp. (Tubificidae) for Nilagiri, and D. digitata and D. zeylanica for Thiruvannamalai districts. The Dero sp. recorded from Villupuram with four hair and four needle chaetae is uniquely different from the rest of the genus so far reported. The tubificid Limnodrilus hoffmeisteri was the most common and abundant and the only species found in the aquaria. Among the naidids, D. dorsalis was the most abundant species collected from Neithavayal pond (Minjur, Thiruvallur district).

We conducted a study about invertebrates on artificial substrates with different antifouling paints in order to answer the following questions 1) is there lower accumulation of organic matter on substrates with antifouling paints, 2) is invertebrate colonization influenced by the release of biocides from antifouling paints, 3) is the colonization of aquatic invertebrates positively influenced by the material accumulated upon the substrate surface and 4) is the assemblage composition of invertebrates similar among the different antifouling paints? To answer these questions, four structures were installed in the Baía River in February 1st, 2007. Each structure was composed of 7 wood boards: 5 boards painted with each type of antifouling paints (T1, T2, T3, T4 and T5), one painted only with the primer (Pr) and the other without any paint (Cn). After 365 days, we observed a greater accumulation of organic matter in the substrates with T2 and T3 paint coatings. Limnoperna fortunei was recorded in all tested paints, with higher densities in the control, primer, T2 and T3. The colonization of Chironomidae and Naididae on the substrate was positively influenced by L. fortunei density. The non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) of the invertebrate community provided evidence of the clear distinction of invertebrate assemblages among the paints. Paints T2 and T3 were the most similar to the control and primer. Our results suggest that antifouling paints applied on substrates hinder invertebrate colonization by decreasing the density and richness of invertebrates. Resumo O estudo dos invertebrados em substrato artificial com diferentes revestimentos antiincrustantes foi realizado com o intuito de responder as seguintes questões 1) Há menor acumulação de material orgânico nos substratos com revestimentos antiincrustantes? 2) A colonização de invertebrados é afetada pela liberação de biocidas dos revestimentos antiincrustantes? 3) A colonização dos invertebrados aquáticos é facilitada por material acumulado sobre a superfície do substrato? 4) A composição da assembléia é similar entre os diferentes revestimentos? Para realização deste estudo, quatro estruturas foram instaladas em 01 de fevereiro de 2007 no rio Baía. Em cada estrutura foram colocadas sete placas de madeira: cinco placas com aplicação de um tipo de revestimentos antiincrustantes (T1, T2, T3, T4 e T5), uma placa apenas com a aplicação do primer (Pr) e a outra placa permaneceu sem aplicação de nenhum revestimento (Cn). Ao final dos 365 dias em que os substratos ficaram submersos observou-se maior acumulação de material orgânico nos substratos dos revestimentos T2 e T3. Limnoperna fortunei foi registrada em todos os revestimentos testados, com maiores densidades encontradas no controle, primer, T2 e T3. A colonização de Chironomidae e Naididae sobre os substratos foi influenciada pela densidade de L. fortunei. A ordenação (NMDS) evidenciou a separação da assembléia de invertebrados entre os revestimentos. Os revestimentos T2 e T3 foram os mais similares ao controle e ao primer. Os resultados obtidos sugerem que revestimentos antiicrustantes aplicados sobre substratos dificultam a colonização de invertebrados, reduzindo a densidade e riqueza de invertebrados.