Hainan earthworm community and the comparison with other East and Southeast Asia countries for geographic distribution and endemic rate

This paper presents an up-to-date list of the terrestrial earthworms of Hainan Island, which is the second largest island of China and separated by Qiongzhou Strait from the Leizhou Peninsula, Guangdong Province. Actually, 45 species are already known in this island, 60% of which is native species. Ten new species which were collected in the fieldwork in 2006 are also included in the list. Of these 45 species, 82% belongs to the family Megascolecidae, with the dominant genus Amynthas (70%). Some of the species also disperse in other regions of the Southeast Asia and China mainland, except 5 species only have a limited distribution. The endemism rate of Hainan (60%) is similar with that of China mainland (66%) and Taiwan (58%), but its endemism rate of Amynthas (77%) is much higher. All of these results maybe have some links with the geographical history of Hainan Island.