On some earthworms from Taiwan. American Museum novitates ; no. 1941
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Abstract
"The 13 species represented in the collections hitherto available from the island of Formosa are all megascolecids and, with a single exception, of one genus. Two of the 12 pheretimas have been represented only by individuals too young to permit specific identification. Five of the others, as is the Perionyx, certainly are exotic (elongata from Malaysia, posthuma from southeast Asia, californica and diffringens perhaps from mainland China, bicincta from some part of the Pheretima domain east of Burma). Pheretima papulosa is peregrine, but its original home is unknown. The status of another (candida) is dubious. Two (aspergillum and incongrua) have been reported from the Chinese mainland, but little is known about their relationships and distribution. One species (formosae), presumably with biparental reproduction, certainly seems to be endemic in the island. Reproduction, in three of the exotic pheretimas, is parthenogenetic but in the other two, as well as in the Perionyx, is biparental. Absent in all of the collections are the European, American, and African exotics which have been so widely transported since the days of Henry the Navigator. Most, if not all, of the Formosan exotics may then have been brought to the island prior to arrival of Europeans in the Orient"--P. 19.
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Includes bibliographical references.