Ref ID : 5953
Kathryn Coates; New marine species of Marionina and Enchytraeus (Oligochaeta, Enchytraeidae) from British Columbia. Can.J.Zool. 58:1306-1317, 1980
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Four new species of Marionina and one of Enchytraeus have been discovered during marine oligochaete surveys in British Columbia. Three new species of Marionina, M. vancouverensis, M. charlottensis, and M. neroutsensis, are similar to a group of other species including M. spicula (Leuckart, 1847), M. brevis Finogenova, 1977, M. istriae Giere, 1974, and M. sublittoralis Erseus, 1976. Marionina vancouverensis is estuarine; M. charlottensis is less estuarine and associated with upper intertidial algae such as Fucus and Enteromorpha; M. neroutsensis is also an upper intertidal form but from saturated fine sediments. In contrast, M. trevori has an unusual combination of generic characters separating it from other species of the genus. It was collected from coarse sand with decaying algae near a sewage outflow. Enchytraeus rupus is similar to several other small Enchytraeus species only a few of which have been found intertidally and none previously on the Pacific coast of North America.