''Pheretima praepinguis'' is a huge
earthworm
An earthworm is a terrestrial invertebrate that belongs to the phylum Annelida. They exhibit a tube-within-a-tube body plan; they are externally segmented with corresponding internal segmentation; and they usually have setae on all segments. Th ...
about half meter long of genus
Pheretima
''Pheretima'' is a genus of earthworms found mostly in New Guinea and parts of Southeast Asia.
Species belonging to the genus Pheretima have a clitellum, which is a band of glandular tissue present on segments 14 to 16.
Individuals are hermaph ...
.
''Pheretima praepinguis'' lives in
Emei mountain
Mount Emei (; ), alternately Mount Omei, is a mountain in Sichuan Province, China, and is the highest of the Four Sacred Buddhist Mountains of China. Mount Emei sits at the western rim of the Sichuan Basin. The mountains west of it are know ...
,
Sichuan Province
Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the ...
, China, and is one of the most featured organisms living in the place.
[ It's trivially called "Big Earthworm of Emei"() or "Toudilong" (, literally means "dragon which can go through the earth").]
History
In 1931, Yi Chen (), a honored Chinese biologist, researched some samples of an earthworm from Mount Emei, Sichuan Province. At that time, he suggested that it should be classified into ''Pheretima tschiliensis''. However, G. E. Gates
Gordon Enoch Gates (11 January 1897 – 11 June 1987) was an American zoology, zoologist.
Biography
Gates was born in Warner, New Hampshire, in 1897. He graduated from Colby College in 1919. From 1921 to 1941, he served as the head of Biology D ...
found out that such earthworm is different with ''Pheretima tschiliensis''. They can be distinguished by the location of the primary spermathecal pores in parietal invaginations. He then named this earthworm after ''Pheretima praepinguis'' in 1935. Although Yi Chen insisted that ''Pheretima praepinguis'' is a synonym of ''Pheretima tschiliensis'' in an article published in 1936, this name is ubiquitously accepted nowadays.
See also
*Pheretima
''Pheretima'' is a genus of earthworms found mostly in New Guinea and parts of Southeast Asia.
Species belonging to the genus Pheretima have a clitellum, which is a band of glandular tissue present on segments 14 to 16.
Individuals are hermaph ...
*'' Pheretima tschiliensis''
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q33495162
Megascolecidae