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The World of Protozoa, Rotifera, Nematoda and Oligochaeta

Ref ID : 6026

J. Rombke; Contribution to the Biogeography of some species of terrestrial Enchytraeidae (Oligochaeta: Annelida). Soil Biol.Biochem. 24(12):1283-1290, 1992

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Despite the fact that enchytraeids have been known worldwide since the second half of the 19th century only a few surveys of the biogeography of terrestrial species have been made. Certainly, this deficiency is at least partly due to the difficult taxonomic situation of the family Enchytraeidae. Since the late 1950s there has been an idea of the number and distribution of European species, but with the exception of some restricted areas hardly anything is known about the enchytraeid fauna of other continents. Therefore, all distribution maps up to now show mainly the current state of scientific knowledge. In this contribution a first assessment of the biogeography of ten selected species belonging to six genera of terrestrial, mainly European enchytraeids is given. The criterion for the selection of these species was easy identification at the species level on the basis of very obvious characters which allowed the use of references of non-specialists too. On the base of the literature and own samplings distribution maps are given and the distribution patterns are discussed.