microdrile

plural microdriles

1. Any relatively small, generally aquatic, oligochaete, a member of a sometimes used size-based division of the class Oligochaeta.

   In microdriles the circular muscle is generally only weakly developed.

   1981, Barrie Gillean Molyneux Jamieson, The Ultrastructure of the Oligochaeta, page 45

   2 more examples

   Before the study was begun, the known oligochaete fauna of Tasmania consisted of six species of aquatic microdriles, twenty-three indigenous species of megascolecid earthworms, and introduced earthworms of the family Lumbricidae.

   1975, Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History): Zoology, volume 26, page 205

   Microdriles in our subcontinent are represented by three families of aquatic oligochaetes namely Naididae, Tubificidae and Phraeodrilidae, and terrestrial pot worms of the Enchytraeidae.

   1991, Zoological Survey of India, Animal Resources of India: Protozoa to Mammalia: State of the Art, page 164