Thembeka Nxele

Kwazulu-Natal Museum · Natural Science

The continued reduction of suitable natural habitats threatens the existence of earthworms. A project that document earthworm species in areas previously open to the public is ongoing in KwaZulu-Natal. The public areas have been less surveyed for earthworms and a recent survey resulted in the collection of a new species of Proandricus Plisko, 1992....

Loss of biodiversity in agroecosystems has negative implications for crop production and the functioning of the ecosystem. As such, agroecologists advocate minimum tillage practices in order to conserve biological diversity. To establish the influence of agricultural practices on biodiversity, we compared the species richness, abundance and composi...

Little is known about the species composition of earthworms in agroecosystems in South Africa even though earthworms provide soil ecosystem services and are useful biological indicators of changes in the habitats. Given the land use and management impact biodiversity, the aim of this study was to document earthworm species that occur under cultivat...

Species identification of earthworms using morphology can be challenging and inconclusive as homoplasy in many characters is high. The use of molecular DNA technology, such as the use of conserved regions in mtDNA and nuclear DNA has unravelled the phylogenetic background of several earthworm species. The current study utilised the cytochrome c oxi...

The earthworm fauna of Botswana is hitherto unknown. A first collecting trip to the regions of Chobe and Tuli Block resulted in the discovery of a new species, Tritogenia talana sp.n. Its reproductive organs show some level of degeneration when compared to other species of Tritogenia. The spermathecae were not observed, testes and sperm funnels are...

Four new species of Kazimierzus are described from the Western Cape and Northern Cape, South Africa: K. kleinoodi sp. n., K. nietvoorbiji sp. n., K. nieuwoudtvillensis sp. n., and K. phumlani sp. n. Kazimierzus kleinoodi is distinguished from the other species of this genus by the position of the calciferous glands in 9 and paired spermathecae in f...

Certain groups of invertebrates are becoming mainstreamed in conservation activities in KwaZulu-Natal, especially taxa that have many narrow-range species endemic to the province. As a result, there may be a need to assign common (in this case English) names where these are unavailable. A list of scientific names and standardised common names is pr...

A review of the genus Kazimierzus Plisko, 2006, based on available type material enriched by study of selected specimens from the earthworm collection gathered at the NMSA and literature, revealed that the species presently accredited to this genus are characterized by unique features and clearly differ from the species of the other genera endorsed...

Earthworms are an important component of southern African invertebrate diversity, due both to their influential roles in soil ecosystems, and the relatively large number of species. As of 2010, there were 282 indigenous earthworm species (most endemic) known to South Africa belonging to three families: Microchaetidae, Tritogeniidae and Acanthodrili...

A functional guide for the separation of foreign earthworm taxa (intentionally or coincidentally recorded in South African soils) from native South African taxa is provided. Forty-four earthworm species recorded from South African soils, known as ‘exotics’ or introduced, which were under secondary attention for many years, are placed in the annotat...

Examining recently collected earthworms from a sugarcane farm in Port Shepstone, South Africa resulted in the discovery of a new species, Geogenia minnehaha sp. n. This species is similar to G. tuberosus (Plisko, 1998) but differs from it by the extended clitellum, the size and position of papillae, and the number and shape of spermathecae. The pre...

The genus Tritogenia Kinberg, 1867 is endemic to the northeastern part of South Afri-ca and reveals high diversity, with 35 species identified so far. Resemblance in some of the species assembled in this genus is strong; in some species some characters overlap with very little difference, but there are clear differences noted in the others. Difficu...

A recent survey in selected habitat types in Queen Elizabeth Park (protected area for more than 50 years) resulted in the recording of 1127 specimens of nine earthworm species inhabiting the park, of which only one microchaetid Tritogenia howickiana is indigenous to South Africa. The other eight species are peregrine, widely introduced, and belong...