Amynthas corticis subsp. saeseum Blakemore 2013

On the invalidity of the name Amynthas corticis saeseum Blakemore, 2013 Blakemore (2013a, p. 26) described Amynthas corticis saeseum from Saeseum Island, South Korea with DNA sample of the holotype labeled as w33. Blakemore (2013a) states in the remarks section that " Amynthas corticis saeseum is possibly a ‘proto-species’ distinguished principally by its consistent bulbous augmentation to the spermathecae on either side…here considered equivalent to an allopatric sub-species". Besides, Fig. 1 in Blakemore (2013b) shows two lineages of A. corticis. This is in agreement with our finding (Fig. 3). Sequences of w33 and our specimen with GenBank accession number JX290433 belong to the same group while that of our specimen with GenBank accession number JX290432 belongs to the other (Fig. 3). However, the two specimens with GenBank accession numbers starting with “JX” were found sympatric near a bridge in Fuhsing, Taoyuan, northern Taiwan (Table 1). Sympatry of different lineages has been observed in several peregrine earthworm species (Rota et al. 2018; Taheri et al. 2018; Chang et al. 2024). Similarly, A. corticis also has different lineages which sometimes are in sympatry. Consequently, A. corticis saeseum is not an allopatric sub-species as stated in Blakemore (2013a). Shen (2018) criticized the erection of sympatric subspecies since this common, but harmful practice in earthworm taxonomy ignores the biogeographical connotation of the concept. In addition, specimen with DNA sample labeled as WO4 and the holotype (w33) of A. corticis saeseum belong to the same lineage (Fig. 3), but this specimen, as depicted in Fig. 5 in Blakemore (2013b, p. 105), shows no sign of the bulbous augmentation to the spermathecae. Clearly, this character for distinguishing A. corticis saeseum from the nominal A. corticis is merely individual variation. The name A. corticis saeseum is invalid.