Earthworms From The French Pyrenees, With Description Of A New Scherotheca (Opothedrilus) Species (Clitellata: Megadrili: Lumbricidae)

Elaborating an earthworm material collected in the French part of the Western and Central Pyrenees and surrounding regions in the southern and southwestern parts of Nouvelle Aquitaine and Occitanie resulted in recording 13 taxa belonging to the family Lumbricidae. Among them, Scherotheca (Opothedrilus) occitanica sp. n. proved to be new to science. The former subspecies Lumbricus friendi friendi and L. friendi bouchei were found to occur sympatrically; the overlapping distributions and the morphological differences justified the elevation of L. friendi bouchei to species rank.