Lumbricidae, Rafinesque, 1815

Other Lumbricidae View in CoL genera

The rest of Lumbricidae taken into our analysis formed a sister clade to D. byblica . Within this group, one large and well-supported clade included the genera Eisenia , Bimastos , and Rhiphaeodrilus (see below). This clade was weakly related to the group of the Aporrectodea caliginosa complex ( A. caliginosa , A. tuberculata , and A. trapezoides ) and Lumbricus ( L. rubellus and L. terrestris ). However, on the amino acid trees, the genus Lumbricus moved to the basal position within the D. byblica + rest of the Lumbricidae clade. We hypothesize it could be a long branch attraction artifact; denser sampling within Lumbricus will aid in clarifying its position. The second weakly supported clade contained three groups: A. rosea + A. icterica , P. kaznakovi + H. patriarchalis , and O. tyrtaeum + A. jassyensis . Based on morphological grounds, Octolasion is believed to be related to Aporrectodea based on the similarity of their nephridia, as well as the type of their muscles ( Perel, 1979; Vsevolodova-Perel, 1997). Further genomic data from other Octolasion species are required to clarify the affinity between these genera.

The genus Aporrectodea thus turned out to be polyphyletic, including at least three unrelated groups ( A. caliginosa complex, A. rosea + A. icterica , and A. jassyensis ). Other studies yielded similar results for this genus ( Domínguez et al., 2015; Pérez-Losada et al., 2015; Csuzdi et al., 2017; Marchán et al., 2022), implying a need for a revision, similar to what was done for Allolobophora ( Navarro et al., 2023) . Marchán et al. (2023) suggested that A. rosea , A. icterica , and A. jassyensis are unrelated to the “real” Aporrectodea , but their exact placement is still undefined.