UTTAR PRADESH JOURNAL OF ZOOLOGY

Purba Medinipur, West Bengal, has historically had limited locality-specific documentation of annelid diversity. A faunal survey conducted in 2026 assessed earthworms and leeches collected from moist microhabitats across the district. Field collection targeted leaf litter, decaying organic matter, and moist soil, with specimens recovered using pickaxes or spades. Specimens were narcotised, fixed, preserved, and examined using external morphological and internal anatomical characters for taxonomic identification. In total, 102 specimens were examined, comprising 84 earthworms and 18 leeches. Fourteen taxa were recorded: 13 earthworm taxa, of which 12 were identified to species level and one was retained as Perionyx sp., and one leech species. The earthworm material represented seven genera and three families, while the leech material represented one genus and one family. The systematic account reports district-level distributional records and identifies one named species—Perionyx shyamasreetus, as first record from West Bengal. Perionyx sp. is retained as an unidentified taxon and is excluded from formal species-level and state-new-record counts. The material includes taxa collected from Nandigram, Mahishadal, Patashpur, Khejuri, Bhagawanpur, and other localities within Purba Medinipur. Recorded abundance varied among earthworm taxa, while the leech material comprised 18 specimens of Haemadipsa sylvestris. These observations update the district-level annelid inventory and provide locality-specific baseline information on the occurrence and distribution of earthworms and leeches in the surveyed habitats. The findings also support continued systematic sampling to improve documentation of annelid diversity in Purba Medinipur.