Michaelsen, 1900
Type genus Haplotaxis Hoffmeister, 1843
Number of genera 9, number of species 32. In NWE, one species:
Haplotaxis gordioides (Hartmann, 1821)
Some more species are recorded from the nearby Pyrenees.
Description
Oligochaeta with sigmoid chaetae only, either simple-pointed or with small upper tooth, two or one per bundle. Testes in X and XI, ovaries in XII (or XII and XIII); sometimes the whole set shifted forward by one segment. Male ducts plesioporous (located in segment subsequent to corresponding testes), very short and simple, without any atria, prostate glands or penes. Spermathecae in pretesticular segments. In Brinkhurst and Jamieson, 1971, all species of Haplotaxidae were lumped into the single genus Haplotaxis. The last revision by Brinkhurst, 1988 divided the family into eight genera, separating the ninth genus under its own family, and transferring the tenth into another order, Lumbricida.
Burrowing in sediment.
Distribution
Cosmopolitan.
Ecology
In freshwater.
Reproduction
Sexual only. Eggs laid in cocoons.
Literature
Claus, 1880: 482; Vejdovsky, 1884b: 48-49; Michaelsen, 1900: 107; Brinkhurst and Jamieson, 1971: 286-289; Chekanovskaya, 1981: 400-401; Hrabe, 1981: 116; Kasprzak, 1981: 209-210; Brinkhurst, 1988: 2243-2252.