INHS Annelid Collection

All information found on this site falls under the INHS's Internet License Agreement.
(NOTE: Illinois specific lists are marked with Illinois specific database )

CURATOR

Mark J. Wetzel, Annelid Curator / Collection Manager

ABOUT THE ANNELID COLLECTION

The INHS Annelida Collection is perhaps the largest state collection of freshwater oligochaetes in the country, holding more than 315,000 specimens (over 6,300 lots, or collections). Approximately 212,000 specimens are permanently mounted on microscope slides; the remaining specimens are stored in alcohol in vials and jars. With the exception of one monospecific order - the Acanthobdellida, or bristle worms - the collection includes representatives of the other major Annelida groups: Aphanoneura (the head-crawling, or suction-feeding worms, including representatives of one family, Aeolosomatidae); Branchiobdellida (the crayfish worms, including representatives of the families Bdellodrilidae, Cambarincolidae, and Xironodrilidae); Hirudinea (the leeches, including representatives of families Haemopidae, Hirudinidae, Erpobdellidae, Glossiphoniidae, and Piscicolidae); the Oligochaeta, with representatives of the aquatic microdrile worms (families Enchytraeidae, Haplotaxidae, Lumbriculidae, Naididae, Opistocystidae, and Tubificidae), and the terrestrial megadrile worms (families Acanthodrilidae, Komarekionidae, Lumbricidae, Megascolecidae, and Sparganophilidae); and Polychaeta (sand worms, tube worms, or clam worms - primarily marine) including a few representatives of the families Capitellidae and Sabellidae. The INHS Annelida Collection includes representatives of many worm species that have limited known distributions in North America. Currently, none of the annelids known or thought likely to occur in Illinois is listed as endangered or threatened by either the federal government or by the State of Illinois, nor are there any under consideration for such listing.

The geographic scope of the INHS Annelida Collection is about 74% from Illinois; 25% from elsewhere in North America (collections from the states of Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming, and the District of Columbia, and from the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, and Prince Edward Island); and 1% from other countries, including the Bahamas, Colombia, Ecuador, Germany, India, Jamaica, Lesser Antilles (Antigua, Barbados, Jamaica, Granada, Nexis, St. Lucia), The Netherlands, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, Sweden, and Venezuela.

The INHS Annelida Collection contains primary types of six leech and one aquatic oligochaete species: Hirudinea 1. Illinobdella alba M. C. Meyer, 1940 [=Myzobdella lugubris Leidy, 1851] (Hirudinea: Piscicolidae) - INHS Annelida Collection slide no. 13580 (21). 2. Illinobdella elongata M. C. Meyer, 1940 [= Myzobdella lugubris Leidy, 1851] (Hirudinea: Piscicolidae) - INHS Annelida Collection slide no. 13582 (118). 3. Illinobdella moorei M. C. Meyer, 1940 [=Myzobdella lugubris Leidy, 1851] (Hirudinea: Piscicolidae) - INHS Annelida Collection slide no. 13579 (133). 4. Illinobdella richardsoni M. C. Meyer, 1940 [=Myzobdella lugubris Leidy, 1851] (Hirudinea: Piscicolidae) - INHS Annelida Collection slide no. 13581 (85). 5. Cystobranchus verrilli M. C. Meyer, 1940 (Hirudinea: Piscicolidae) - INHS Annelida Collection slide no. 13578 (152). 6. Piscicolaria reducta M. C. Meyer, 1940 (Hirudinea: Piscicolidae) - INHS Annelida Collection slide no. 13583 (150). Oligochaeta 1. Limnodrilus tortilipenis Wetzel, 1987 (Oligochaeta: Tubificidae). Two paratypes of this species are deposited in the INHS Annelida Collection (no accession number); the holotype and one paratype of this species are deposited in the U.S. National Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. (USNM 100439, USNM 100440).

Over 70% of the slide-mounted aquatic oligochaetes have been identified. Many additional collections of aquatic oligochaetes, presently held in alcohol jars and vials, await final processing, mounting on glass microslides, and identification. A computer database for the collection was begun in 1991. An important acquisition for the INHS Annelida Collection in 1986 was the Walter J. Harman collection of terrestrial oligochaetes. The material in this collection, comprised of 1,600 earthworm specimens representing 22 species, 10 genera, and 3 families, was collected by Dr. Harman from 230 sites in central Illinois during his 1956-1958 survey for his doctoral work at the University of Illinois. Specific surveys for aquatic annelids as well as general surveys for all aquatic macroinvertebrates conducted by M. J. Wetzel and other INHS biologists since 1973 have contributed the vast majority of the identified and unidentified specimens to the INHS Annelida Collection.

Illinois species now deposited in the INHS Annelida Collection include 3 aphanoneurans (1 family, 1 genus), 9 branchiobdellidans (3 families, 6 genera), 86 aquatic or semiaquatic oligochaetes (7 families, 45 genera), 32 leeches (4 families, 19 genera), and at least 22 terrestrial oligochaetes (3 families, 10 genera). One aquatic species, Eclipidrilus asymmetricus (Smith, 1896) (Oligochaeta: Lumbriculidae), is endemic to Illinois; several other species, including Limnodrilus tortilipenis Wetzel, 1987, Rhyacodrilus falciformis Bretscher, 1901, and Rhyacodrilus subterraneus Hrabe, 1963 (Oligochaeta: Tubificidae), and Allonais inaequalis (Stephenson, 1911) (Oligochaeta: Naididae) are species considered rare in Illinois, and known from only a few localities in North America. Another species, Varichaetadrilus angustipenis (Brinkhurst & Cook, 1966) - sporadic in its North American distribution - has been collected from several springs and caves in Illinois, but rarely elsewhere in the state.

SPECIES LISTS, DATABASES & DISTRIBUTIONS

RESEARCH

PUBLICATIONS

Illinois Earthworms: Indicators of Soil Health? May-June 1998
Horsehair Worms in Illinois. March-April 1995

OUTREACH

Please phone Mike Jeffords (217) 333-5986 for more information.