Aporrectodea rosea (Savigny, 1826)

Aporrectodea rosea (Savigny, 1826) View in CoL

Known data: Debrashtitca, Patalenitsa, Tunkovo, Vishegrad, Cruncha, Bachkovo vill. ( Mihailova 1966). New material: 6 ex.

Dendrobaena alpina alpina ( Rosa, 1884) View in CoL

Known data: Kostenets ( Černosvitov 1937), Tunkovo vill. ( Mihailova 1966), Pavelsko vill. ( Szederjesi 2013). New material: 8 ex.

* Dendrobaena balcanica ( Černosvitov, 1937)

This is the first record of this species from the Rhodope Mts. New material: 2 ex.

Dendrobaena hrabei ( Černosvitov, 1934)

Known data: Kostenets ( Černosvitov 1937). New material: 1 ex.

Dendrobaena rhodopensis ( Černosvitov, 1937)

Known data: Kostenets ( Černosvitov 1937). New material: 2 ex.

Eisenia lucens ( Waga, 1857) View in CoL

Known data: Bachkovo vill. ( Černosvitov 1937) Smolian ( Szederjesi 2013). New material: 4 ex.

Lumbricus rubellus Hoffmeister, 1843 View in CoL

Known data: Asenovgrad ( Černosvitov 1937), Patalenitsa, Tunkovo, Cruncha, Bachkovo, Malko Gradishte vill. ( Mihailova 1966). New material: 2 ex.

Lumbricus terrestris Linnaeus, 1758 View in CoL

Known data: Smolian ( Szederjesi 2013). New material: 9 ex.

Octolasion lacteum ( Örley, 1881) View in CoL

Known data: Asenovgrad, Kostenets ( Černosvitov 1937) Bachkovo, Tunkovo vill. ( Mihailova 1966), Smolian ( Szederjesi 2013). New material: 2 ex.

One taxon, D. balcanica , is found for the first time in the Rhodope Mts. It is a Balkan endemic species, previously found in Bulgaria only in the Slavyanka Mts ( Černosvitov, 1937), Pirin Mts ( Zicsi & Csuzdi 1986) and Sarnena Sredna Gora Mts ( Zdravkova et al. 2020). Thus, the present study added one species to the so far known lumbricid fauna of the mountain, which currently includes 23 species, presented in the Table 1. This is almost the half of the earthworm diversity in Bulgaria (Valchovskiet al., 2018). Similarly, an extremely rich lumbricid fauna (21 species, 42% of Bulgarian lumbricid fauna) has been found in the Sarnena Sredna Gora Mts., which was supposed to be resulting from its specific location, relief and contact areas ( Zdravkova et al. 2020).

The analysis of our results and the data already known for the mountain shows that according to the zoogeographical distribution types, the earthworm fauna of the Rhodope Mt. is dominated by peregrine species (10 taxa, 43.5%), followed by endemic species (5 taxa, 21.7%). This is typical for earthworm biodiversity of the country (Valchovski, 2012). Less numerous are the Balkanic-Alpine, Central-European and Trans-Aegean earthworms (each with 2 taxa, 8.7%). Mediterranean and Holarctic species take part with one species each (4.3%). Most of the species (9) are epigeic, distributed on the surface of the soil layer. Also numerous are endogeic earthworms (7) living in the humus soil layer. Rest of the species are anecic (from deep soil layers), amphibiotic, corticolous or epi-endogeic.