• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.55 no.1
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• pp.77-79
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• 2017

The infection by Limnodrilus hoffmeisteri $Clapar{\grave{e}}de$, 1862 (Oligochaeta: Tubificinae) in humans is relatively uncommon. The present report is to describe an incidental human infection with oligochaetes in the nasal cavity of a Chinese man, a 25-year-old man residing in Zhangjiakou city, Hebei province, China presenting with nose bleed, severe itching, continuous sneezing, and rhinorrhea. A lot of oligochaete worms were found in the nasal discharge of the patient. The detected worms were identified as Limnodrilus hoffmeisteri (Annelida: Oligochaeta) based on morphological and molecular characteristics. This incidental L. hoffmeisteri nasal infection is the first case in China and indicates that oligochaete worms can be encountered in humans.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.507-512
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• 2013

Aquatic oligochaetes were investigated from a small amount of sediment sampled from the Jungnang Stream, an urban stream in Seoul, Korea, in November 2012. Sorted oligochaetes were observed under a light microscope in a drop of carbonated water, and then preserved in 70% ethanol. Some specimens were slide mounted using glycerin and Eupharal. As a result, the following 12 species were identified including 8 new Korean records, Bothrioneurum vejdoskyanum Stolc, Branchiodrilus hortensis (Stephenson), Chaetogaster cristalinus Vejdosky, Nais communis Piguet, Nais pardalis Piguet, Dero obtusa d'Udekem, Piguetiella denticulata Liang, and Haemonais waldvogeli Brescher and 4 additional known species, Limnodrilus hoffmeisteri Cleparede, Branchiura sowerbyi Beddard, Chaetogaster diastrophus (Gruithuisen), and Stylaria fossularis Leidy. This study shows how freshwater oligochaetes are diverse even in urban streams in Korea, if a proper sampling and examining method is employed.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.607-617
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• 2019

This study examined the habitat distribution characteristics of Aquatic Oligochaeta according to the construction of weirs in the four major rivers in South Korea. The area was investigated 10 times from March to October in 2018 and a total of 18 species and 35,390 ind. m^-2 were sampled. The dominant species by number was Limnodrilus hoffmeisteri(77.1%) and the subdominant species was Branchiura sowerbyi(9.5%). A total of 32.418 g m^-2 dry weight was analyzed. The correlation analysis showed that the number of Aquatic Oligochaeta individuals correlated with the sediment depth, clay ratio, silt ratio, sand ratio, cobble ratio, pebble ratio, pH and TOC mg L^-1. Specifically, the clay ratio and sediment depth were associated with increases in the number of individuals. The total organic carbon(TOC) increased from March to October and, conversely, the number of individuals tended to decrease.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.343-353
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• 2016

Oligochaetes distribute widely in freshwater ecosystem, and some species are used as bioindicators for water quality assessment because they are tolerant to organic enrichment. They are acknowledged for potential for environmental health recovery of organic polluted environment. There are a lot of studies on ecology and toxicity assessment using oligochaetes in aquatic environment. In this study, we reviewed literature on ecotoxicology of aquatic oligochaetes. We searched literature from a database 'google scholar' by using keywords such as aquatic, oligochaete, and toxicity. The literature were summarized according to publication years, species, test methods, and chemicals. We obtained 133 articles published from 1953 to 2015 from the database. Among them, 58 papers(43.6% of total) have been published in 1990s. Three species(Lumnbriculus variegatus, Tubifex tubifex, and Limnodrilus hoffmeisteri) have been used most frequently in the study. Different species displayed different toxicological responses to different toxic chemicals. The results on the ecotoxicological study with aquatic oligochaetes revealed the possibility of the development for early warning system using aquatic oligochaetes to monitor aquatic ecosystem disturbance.