Marine Tubificidae (Oligochaeta) from a mangrove habitat in Kenya

Abstract

Two species of Tubificidae (both subfamily Rhyacodrilinae) are described from a hypersaline, high intertidal mangrove site at Gazi Bay in southern Kenya indicating that mangrove sediments of tropical East Africa contain marine Tubificidae, as do similar habitats studied on other continents. One species is identified as Ainudrilus mediocris Erséus 1997, originally described from similar habitats in northern Australia. The genitalia of the Kenyan specimens differ in some dimensional features from those of the Australian material. The second taxon, Monopylephorus parvus Ditlevsen 1904, is reported from many parts of the world, from tropical as well as temperate regions; it possibly should be regarded as a group of (very similar) species rather than a single species. © 1999 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.