Yamaguchia
| Yamaguchia toyensis | |
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| Genus: | Yamaguchia
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| Species: | Y. toyensis
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| Yamaguchia toyensis | |
Yamaguchia toyensis, which was first described by Fend and Ohtaka (2004), is one of many aquatic oligochaetes belonging to the family Lumbriculidae discovered on Hokkaido, which seems to be one of three "hotspots" of lumbriculid diversity (the others being the Rocky Mountains and Lake Baikal. The genus named after the great oligochaete taxonomist Professor Hideji Yamaguchi.
Y. toyensis was originally collected from profundal parts of Lake Toya, Hokkaido (after which it is named), and is among the shortest of the lumbriculids (7-11 mm). It is uncertain where in the phylogeny of the lumbriculids Y. toyensis belongs. It seems to lack novel characters with which to place it unambiguously, but has a combination of features not found in other genera of the family, such as prosoporous male ducts in segment X and a single pair of spermathecae in segment XI.
References
- Fend, S. V. & Ohtaka, A. (2004): Yamaguchia toyensis n. sp., n. gen. (Annelida, Clitellata, Lumbriculidae) from Profundal Lake Habitat in Japan. Zoological Science 21: 677-683.