Megascolecoidea (Jamieson, 1978)

Jamieson, Barrie G. M., Tillier, Simon, Tillier, Annie, Justine, Jean-Lou, Ling, Edmund, James, Sam, Mcdonald, Keith & Hugall, Andrew F., 2002, Phylogeny of the Megascolecidae and Crassiclitellata (Annelida, Oligochaeta): combined versus partitioned analysis using nuclear (28 S) and mitochondrial (12 S, 16 S) rDNA, Zoosystema 24 (4), pp. 707-734 : 728

Megascolecoidea ( Megascolecidae Rosa, 1891 + Ocnerodrilidae Beddard, 1891 )

In the morphocladistic analysis ( Jamieson 1988), the superfamily Megascolecoidea contained only the Megascolecidae , with the two subfamilies Acanthodrilinae and Megascolecinae , and excluded the Ocnerodrilidae and Eudrilidae . However, all three of these families had been tentatively included in the superfamily Megascolecoidea in Jamieson (1978, 1980 ). Recognition by Lee (1959), Jamieson (1971a-c, 1978, 1980), and Sims (1966, 1967) of an Acanthodrilinae + Megascolecinae assemblage together with the Ocnerodril(-inae) (-idae) is endorsed in the present molecular analyses. Monophyly of the ocnerodrile exemplar Eukerria saltensis with the Megascolecidae ( Acanthodrilinae + Megascolecinae ) is supported in all cladistic analyses that have additional outgroups. This relationship of the Ocnerodrilidae with the Megascolecidae has> 90% BS support in MP trees (see Figs 2; 4, also Jamieson 2000). In view of the sister-group relationship of the Eukerria saltensis with the Megascolecidae s.l., it appears that the family Ocnerodrilidae may be included in the Megascolecoidea , rather than having a suprafamilial rank of its own, but this needs wider sampling to test monophyly, and the relationships of the two ocnerodrile tribes Ocnerodrilini and Malabarini.