The genusAlma(Microchaetidae: Oligochaeta) in Egypt and the Sudan

Abstract
A population of the aquatic megadrile genus Alma inhabiting irrigation ditches adjacent to the Nile at Abu Rawwash, near Cairo, is shown to be conspecific with Alma stuhlmanni (Michaelsen). Only the branchiate species, A. nilotica has previously been recorded from Egypt. Morphological descriptions of A. stuhlmanni and A. nilotica are given together with their distributions. Two specimens of A. nilotica from Shimbat constitute the first record of the genus from the Sudan. The form of the genital setae in A. nilotica and in the East African A. emini appears to invalidate sub-division of the genus by Michaelsen (1915) into four species-groups.