A new species of Grania (Enchytraeidae, Clitellata, Annelida) and redescription of Grania pusilla from a rocky shore in SE Ireland

Two species of marine Enchytraeidae belonging to the genus Grania Southern, 1913, Grania mira sp.nov and Grania pusilla Erséus, 1974, are described from the rocky shores of southeast Ireland. Grania mira has distinctive muscular modifications of the male ducts. Grania pusilla which was previously re...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of natural history 1998-08, Vol.32 (8), p.1101-1114
Main Authors: Locke, Jan M., Coates, Kathryn A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Enchytraeidae
Grania
Grania mira
Grania pusilla
Ireland
Marine
marine oligochaetes
new species
rocky shore
taxonomy
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Description
Summary:Two species of marine Enchytraeidae belonging to the genus Grania Southern, 1913, Grania mira sp.nov and Grania pusilla Erséus, 1974, are described from the rocky shores of southeast Ireland. Grania mira has distinctive muscular modifications of the male ducts. Grania pusilla which was previously reported only from the coasts of Norway and Sweden by Erséus (1974), is completely redescribed, including information on many additional morphological characters noted from recent taxonomic literature on Grania. It is reinstated to the level of species. The species has a penial stylet and a large glandular penial bulb. Differences in setal distribution between specimens of G. pusilla from Ireland and those from Norwegian and Swedish populations are attributed to geographical separation limiting genetic exchange. This is the first report of Grania in Ireland since Southern's discovery of Grania maricola in 1913. Grania maricola shares a structurally simple penial bulb type with G. pusilla, but the species differ in spermathecal shape, spermathecal ectal pore position and vas deferens length.
ISSN:0022-2933
1464-5262
DOI:10.1080/00222939800770551