Colleagues at online environmental journal Mongabay report the discovery by three biologists—a Hungarian, a Malagasy woman, and a South Korean—of a new terrestrial invertebrate species, Kynotus insularis. The findings were published in the journal ZooKeys at the end of July.
Measuring approximately 80 cm long with a diameter of 15.5 to 17.5 mm, this worm is not the largest on the island: that record belongs to K. giganteus, discovered in 2011 at Farafangana, which can reach nearly 3 meters.
The animal was spotted on the Nosy Be archipelago in northwestern Madagascar, an area heavily marked by human presence. It belongs to the Kynotidae family, endemic to Madagascar, which now has 23 recorded species of the genus Kynotus. Researcher Malalatiana Razafindrakoto from the Radioisotope Laboratory at the University of Antananarivo explained to Mongabay that this discovery resulted from expeditions conducted in Morondava and Nosy Be between February and March 2026. These missions also led to the rediscovery of K. darwinii, a species from which no specimens had been collected since the late 19th century.
Earthworms play a major ecological role, often called "soil engineers": they improve soil structure, aeration and drainage, and enrich nutrient content, particularly phosphorus through their excretions, thus promoting plant growth.