Description of the first endemic earthworm species from Cyprus (Oligochaeta: Lumbricidae)

New earthworm samples from Cyprus are assessed and discussed. A re-evaluation of specimens previously relegated to the Southern Alpine species Perelia nematogena (Rosa, 1903), revealed two independent species: Perelia phoebea (Cognetti, 1913) ,described originally from Rhodes Island, (Greece) and an undescribed species Perelia makrisi sp. n. The new species is similar also to the Levantine Pe. galileana Csuzdi & Pavlíček, 2005 and corroborates the hypotheses that the autochthonous earthworm fauna of Cyprus is of Levantine origin. http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:FD1996DC-2FFC-42D5-A1D2-005B50E6FC64


Introduction
The first earthworm records from Cyprus were presented in 1993 by K. Michalis. This material was collected mostly in urban environments and altogether displayed six, mainly peregrine, earthworm species. From this material, Michalis (1993) concluded that the earthworm fauna of the island was poor, lacking a diversity of species. Later, Pavlíček & Csuzdi (2006, 2008, 2016 refuted this statement by adding 14 new species records, mainly from the environs of the Troodos Mts. This effort raised the number of earthworm species recorded from Cyprus to 20. By taking into account the East Mediterranean climate, and the size of the island it was concluded that the earthworm fauna of Cyprus is in fact rich (Pavlíček & Csuzdi, 2016). However, up till now no endemic earthworm species had been recorded on the island.
In the present paper, we clarify the taxonomic status of the Perelia nematogena specimens recorded earlier from Cyprus and described the first endemic earthworm species; Perelia makrisi sp. n. Some additional earthworm records from the Troodos Mts. and the southern part of the island are also presented.

Material and Methods
Earthworms were collected by the diluted formaldehyde method (Raw, 1959), complemented with digging and hand-sorting. The specimens were killed and fixed in 96% ethanol, then trans-ferred into 75% ethanol and deposited in the earthworm collection of the Hungarian Natural History Museum (HNHM). For molecular studies, some specimens were placed into 96% ethanol.

Discussion
Due to its tectonic history and long-time isolation from the mainland, Cyprus is one of the most important biodiversity hotspots identified in the Mediterranean Basin (Médail & Quézel, 1999;Pavlíček & Csuzdi, 2006). Interestingly, the earthworm fauna of Cyprus is still poorly known. Data, especially from the northern part of the island (Kyrenia Mts., Mesaoria Plain) is completely missing. Altogether 21 earthworm species are registered on the island so far belonging to the families Lumbricidae and Acanthodrilidae (19 and two species respectively). This species number, compared to the somewhat smaller Crete (18 species; Szederjesi, 2016) and the approximately twice the size Israel (28 species; Szederjesi, Pavlíček, & Csuzdi, 2013) seems to be quite high.
The two acanthodrilid species (Microscolex phosphoreus (Dugès, 1837) and M. dubius Fletcher, 1887) are well-known circum-Mediterranean peregrines of South American origin (Blakemore, 2008). Out of the 19 lumbricid species recorded 6 (32%) belong to the widely introduced peregrine group and 11 species (58%) possess more restricted, perhaps autochtonous distribution on the island. The statuses of two further species are uncertain. Dendrobaena veneta represents a widely introduced species complex of East Mediterranean origin (Csuzdi & Pavlíček, 1999) its real status in Cyprus needs further considerations. Dendrobaena pantaleonis (Chinaglia, 1913) a South Alpine -Mediterranean species has been reported by Michalis (1993) however it has not been found later.
Out of the 11 autochtonous earthworm species recorded for Cyprus only one species shows clear Anatolian affinity: Dendrobaena pentheri whose range extends from the Caucasus region through Anatolia to Cyprus. The newly described species together with the clearly Levantine D. semitica and in the Levant widely distributed Helodrilus patriarchalis (Rosa, 1893) corroborates the hypothesis of the Levantine origin of the Cyprus earthworm fauna (Pavlíček & Csuzdi, 2008). This hypothesis dates back the origin of the native earthworm fauna to the Messinian period (5.96 to 5.33 mya) when several subaerial ridges connected the island with the Levantine coast.
The newly described Cypriot endemic Perelia makrisi sp. n. implies that more, still undescribed earthworm species could be found if a thorough survey were conducted.

Acknowledgements
Our thanks are due to Mr Christodoulos Makris for his extended help during our several field trips to Cyprus. Ms. Emma Sherlock is sincerely thanked for polishing the text.

Funding
This work was supported by the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund (OTKA) No. 100369.

Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary Material
The tables are given as a Supplementary Annex, which is available via the "Supplementary" tab on the article's online page (http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09397140.2016.1182778).