Piguet, 1913
Type species Dorydrilus michaelseni Piguet, 1913
Number of species 3. All three species known from NWE:
Dorydrilus michaelseni Piguet, 1913
Dorydrilus mirabilis Hrabe, 1936a
Dorydrilus tetrathecus Hrabe, 1960
Description
Middle-sized, unpigmented worms. Prostomium without proboscis. Chaetae two per bundle, sigmoid, simple-pointed, with nodulus. Male pores in X, female pores in 10/11, spermathecal pores in X and/or XI, ventral. Pharyngeal glands present. No blind transversal vessels in hindbody. Testes and male funnels in IX, vasa deferentia, atria, male pores and ovaries in X; spermathecae in X and/or XI. Similar to Lumbriculidae in all respects except for male duct which is prosoporous (with testes and atria in the same segment) in Lumbriculidae but plesioporous (with testes in preatrial segment) in Dorydrilidae and in most of the other aquatic oligochaetes.
Burrowing in sediment.
Distribution
Europe.
Ecology
In freshwater, mainly in groundwater.
Reproduction
Sexual only. Eggs laid in cocoons.
Literature
Piguet, 1913: 141; Cook, 1968: 284, Fig. 3; Brinkhurst and Jamieson, 1971: 648; Kasprzak, 1981: 185.