Exploration of four new Kanchuria sp. of earthworms (Oligochaeta: Megascolecidae) from the North Eastern Region of India using DNA bar-coding approach

Abstract

The present investigation was carried out on the earthworms collected from the reserve forests of Meghalaya, which is a part of the North Eastern Region of India, a hot spot of biodiversity to assess diverse earthworms. We adopted integrative approaches involving morphoanatomical taxonomy and cytochrome oxidase 1 sequences using DNA barcoding technique to discriminate different species of Kanchuria genus. The exploration revealed the presence of six Kanchuria species among which four are new: Kanchuria daribokgrensis sp nov, Kanchuria karorensis sp nov, Kanchuria makhulensis sp nov, and Kanchuria mohiskulensis sp nov. Moreover, the species of Kanchuri turaensis and Kanchuri octotheca were additionally identified. The maximum intraspecific and minimum interspecific divergence of six Kanchuria species recorded were 6.11% and 14.85%, respectively. The neighbor-joining tree was constructed using the K2P substitution model, and species discovery was achieved by Automatic Barcode Gap Discovery and Barcode Index Number analysis. The study presented the detailed descriptions and illustrations of six species including four new species of Kanchuria supplemented with their DNA barcodes from Meghalaya (North Eastern Region) to facilitate future species identification.