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Material Examined/ Localitiy: Holotype: Hungary Natural History Museum, Budapest HNHM/15529.  From under tree in park next to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery in Hodogaya-ku (ca. 35° 27' 36" N 139° 35' 46" E), Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa-ken.  Collected by author (RJB) and Yuko Hiramoto, 25.IV.2010.  Anaesthesized in dilute alcohol and preserved in 80% ethanol (EtOH).  A small non-essential tissue sample taken from posterior segments submitted to iBOL for DNA barcode analysis (Sept., 2010).

 

Diagnosis: Prostomium epilobous.  First dorsal pore 3/4.  Clitellum 22-30.  Tubercula pubertatis mammilate on 26 only.  Setae closely paired.  Seminal vesicles in 9-12.  Calciferous glands 1/2 11-12.  Spermathecae absent.  Nephridial bladders sausage-shaped.

 

Etymology: Noun in apposition derived from Australian/New Zealand military acronym (ANZAC) reflecting the circumstances of collection on Anzac Day from a park adjacent to the Military Cemetery, and near to a stand of Eucalyptus gum trees of Australian origin.

 

Distribution: Hodogaya Ward of Yokohama City, central Japan.  Despite its location near a garden of introduced plants, there is however no implication that the current species is a direct introduction from the Australasian region as lumbricids are not considered endemic there, except questionably for enigmatic Eophila eti, Blakemore, 2008 from Tasmania.

 

Behaviour: Fairly passive, lacking the 'body lashing' response seen for many pheretimoids.

 

External features: Length 50 mm.  Segments 139.  Body yellowy unpigmented, but with darker, violet mid-dorsal line; clitellum buff.  Body cylindrical but posterior end tapering and flattened.  Prostomium open epilobous.  First dorsal pore minute in 3/4, others open from 4/5.  Neither spermathecal pores nor spermatophores found.  Clitellum saddle-shaped in 22-30.  Tubercula pubertatis as paired 'nipples' just lateral of b lines centered in 26 and encroaching into both 25 and 27 (Fig. 1).  Setae closely paired (ration on Fig. 1).  Setae tumescences not pronounced.  Nephropores not located (ventral and minute ?).  Female pores minute just lateral of b setae on 14.  Male pores small in mid-bc line of 15 with faintly darker seminal groove extending longitudinally to start of clitellum.

 

Internal morphology: Pharyngeal mass extending from 3-4/5.  Septa not especially thickened except perhaps 13/14.  Dorsal blood vessel single, hearts in 7-11.  Calciferous gland showing annular dilation and composed of numerous lamellae, mainly in 12 but some oesophageal modification in posterior half of 11 and superficially vascularized in 10.  Crop in 15-16; gizzard large, muscular in 17-18, followed by dilated intestine; dorsal typhlosole thin, lamellar from about segment 30.  Nephridia holoic, with elongate, sausage-shaped bladders exiting near ab lines.  Male organs comprising large, iridescent testes free on anterior of septa 10/11 and 11/12, with vasa deferentia ducting to body wall in 12/13.  Seminal vesicles paired, small and vestigal on anterior of septum 9/10, small on anterior of 10/11, larger on posterior of septum 10/11, largest on posterior of 11/12.  Ovaries small in 13, with large oviducts.  Ovisacs small and vestigial on posterior of 13/14.  Small tumid glands sessile in 25-27, corresponding to sites of tubercula pubertatis.  Gut contained organic soil attesting to its superficial soil layer habitat.

 

Remarks: Genetic placement of this new species is difficult, but on balance it most likely belongs in Eisenia following the composite keys to genera in Sims & Gerard (1985), Csuzdi & Zicsi (2003) and Blakemore (2008a) inasmuch as it has an epilobous prostomium, closely paired setae, sausage-shaped nephridial vesicles and intramural calciferous glands (these last in 1/2 11-12).  As Table 1 shows, closest congeners Eisenia japonica (Michaelsen, 1892) and E. koreana Zicsi, 1972 differ, not least, in location of their clitella (on 23, 24-30, 31 in E. japonica and 25-31 in E. koreana) and tubercula pubertatis (on 27-29 in E. japonica and 27-28 in E. koreana).  Only a single specimen of E. anzac is available, so no assessment of its morphological variability is currently possible neither is funding available to undertake further study.

　Lack of spermathecae (or spermatophores) suggests parthenogensis that is more characteristic of Bimastos species, with B. tumidus (Eisen, 1874) being particularly similar but differing on its tubercula pubertatis paired ans slightly raised on 27 and 28 (according to Michaelnsen, 1900) or lacking (in its gieseleri synonyms after Gates, 1972).  Helodrilus species, in contrast to the present new species, display reduced development of nephridial bladders (cf. H. hachiojii Blakemore, 2007 redescribed below).

　Another possible accomondation is in Prosellodrilus Bouché, 1972 as several species described by Qiu & Bouché (1998, p. 37) appear similar on superficial inspection.  In particular, the French species Prosellodrilus calcicola, P. arenicola, and P. milo, all newly described by Qiu & Bouché (1998), as diagnosed for comparison in Tab. 1.

　Since no precise match of any previous description has yet been found, this species from Yokohama is taken to be new to science as well as a new record for Japan.  Insufficient information is available to determine whether it is native or an introduced species and, if the latter case, its provenance.  A guess would be a European origin, possibly incidentally introduced with plants indirectly from Canada, India, or Australia/ New Zealand within the last 60 yrs to the landscaped gardens of Eucalyptus, teatree (Melaleuca sp.) and Kauri (Agathis sp.) around a cemetery that the Japanese call the 'Eirenpo Senshisha Bochi'.