Agartala: In a major boost to soil biodiversity research, two new earthworm species have been discovered in Tripura.
The breakthrough comes from a collaborative study conducted by researchers from Tripura University and institutions in Kerala.
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Animesh Dey, an Assistant Professor at the Ecology and Biodiversity Laboratory, Department of Zoology, Tripura University, led the research team from Tripura. S. Prasanth Narayanan, R. Paliwal, and others joined him. Dey and Sabyasachi Nath first collected the newly identified species, Kanchuria tripuraensis and Kanchuria priyasankari, between 2004 and 2010 during their doctoral fieldwork. Professor Priyasankar Chaudhuri guided their work.
A new group of researchers recently recollected the specimens, leading to their formal classification.
Researchers named Kanchuria tripuraensis after the state of Tripura, while they named Kanchuria priyasankari as a tribute to Professor Chaudhuri’s decades-long contribution to earthworm research. Both species belong to the genus Kanchuria, endemic to Northeast India.
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The study highlights Kanchuria tripuraensis for its unique reproductive anatomy, and Kanchuria priyasankari for its distinct body size and spermathecal features.
With this discovery, the number of Kanchuria species rises to ten, and Tripura’s known megadrile earthworm diversity increases to 38.
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