Research Projects

Terrestrial clitellates (earthworms) are recognised as significant faunal entities due to their contribution to soil function and ecological benefits. They are known for their soft bodies and well-preserved body plans, which has made systematics difficult due to the limited number of morphological traits, many of which are symplesiomorphic or homoplasious. Their high individual divergence have evolutionary links that have not been examined using conventional morphological approaches. According to the standard oligochaeta phylogenetic categorization, the genital system is more conservative and resistant to evolution than the somatic system. Due to the simplicity of their body plans and the variety of their morpho-anatomical plasticity, their taxonomy is complicated and often overlaps when closely related species are considered. These impediments have led to the existence of many morphotypes species that are lumped together into single species, thus being uncertain in the taxonomic category. Molecular systematics may be an important source of information to delimit species and to assign taxonomic categories in complex groups of species. The study is designed to address research gaps in the areas of intraspecific genetic diversity and complexity in clitellates taxa, as well as alterations in genomic levels, particularly in DNA sequences, that contribute to the complexity within these species. The project will examine terrestrial clitellates from two states in India's North Eastern region in order to resolve cryptic species complexes, undertake taxonomy revisions, explore new endemic species and evaluate the phylogenetic and phylogeographic relationships.