(Michaelsen, 1891)
Description
Medium-sized earthworm-like oligochaetes. Colour pink when alive. Chaetae two per bundle, sigmoid, simple-pointed. Clitellum from XIII or XIV to XVIII...XXI. Two pairs of prominent prostate pores, in XVII and XIX, along the line of ventral chaetae, connected with each other by two longitudinal seminal grooves. Paired male pores between them in XVIII, discharging into seminal grooves. Penial chaetae of two kinds, up to 400 µm long, larger one in each bundle, about 5 µm thick, showing some scars in its distal portion, and smaller one twice as thin, smooth and with spoon-like tip. Single female pore on papilla midventral in XIV. Length 19-40 mm, body diameter 1-3 mm, segment number 70-101. Differing from the other species known from the same environment, Dichogaster saliens, in presence of two pairs of prostate pores, as well as in unpaired female pore.
Burrowing in soil and sediment.
Distribution
Known from many tropical countries; introduced to some European greenhouses. Recently found also in sewer pipes in Sweden and Finland.
Ecology
In soil, also in urban sewer systems.
Reproduction
Sexual only. Eggs laid in cocoons.
Literature
Michaelsen, 1891: 9; Sims and Gerard, 1985: 142-143, Fig. 51; Terhivuo, 1991: 62-64, Fig. 2; Erséus et al., 1994: 18-19.