{"id":91057,"date":"2026-03-05T13:18:02","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T07:48:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=91057"},"modified":"2026-03-05T15:31:38","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T10:01:38","slug":"new-earthworm-species","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/new-earthworm-species\/","title":{"rendered":"New Earthworm Species"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>New Earthworm Species Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Recently, a team of researchers have discovered two previously unknown species of moniligastrid earthworms and named them as Moniligaster girishi and Drawida reynoldsi.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Moniligaster girishi<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is <\/span><b>endemic to <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/western-ghats\/\" target=\"_blank\">Western Ghats<\/a><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and belongs to the <\/span><b>family Moniligastridae.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is <\/span><b>named after P. Girish Kumar,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> a scientist at the Zoological Survey of India\u2019s Western Ghats Regional Centre, Kozhikode.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was collected from the <\/span><b>tropical wet evergreen forest.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Characteristics of Moniligaster girishi<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is of the <\/span><b>gravelyi species-group.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is distinguished by a <\/span><b>single undivided spermathecal atrial gland<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> on each side of the anterior body, particularly by the condition of its prostate and prostatic capsule.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It has a <\/span><b>smooth, tubular capsule<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> at one end that flattens into a strap-like shape.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>About Drawida reynoldsi<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was collected from the <\/span><b>montane grassland.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is named after <\/span><b>John Warren Reynolds<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, an eminent <\/span><b>Canadian earthworm specialist.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It belongs to the robusta species-group characterised by glandular prostates and bilobed spermathecal atria.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4><b>Key Facts about Earthworms<\/b><\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They are <\/span><b>terrestrial worms of the class Oligochaeta<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (phylum Annelida)\u2014in particular, members of the genus Lumbricus.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Earthworms are harmless, often beneficial residents of the soil.<\/span><\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Benefits<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They\u00a0 <\/span><b>break down dead and decaying organic matter<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> into rich humus soil, thereby supporting plant growth.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Earthworms release waste from their bodies called castings. Castings contain many <\/span><b>nutrients that the plant can use.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They also dig tiny channels and make holes that aerate soil and improve drainage.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source:<\/b> <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/sci-tech\/energy-and-environment\/two-new-earthworm-species-discovered-in-silent-valley\/article70699940.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">TH<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New Earthworm Species have been discovered and named as Moniligaster girishi and Drawida reynoldsi. Read more about New Earthworm Species, Discovery, Habitat, Characteristics, Latest News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":91078,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5861,21,22,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-91057","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-new-earthworm-species","9":"tag-prelims-pointers","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91057"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91164,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91057\/revisions\/91164"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}