The new species of earthworm found in the Andaman and Nicobar islands has been named Moniligaster ivaniosi, after the name of the college where the researchers are from – Mar Ivanios, in Thiruvananthapuram. Samples collected from Port Blair by CSIR Emeritus scientist Oommen V. Oommen and Assistant Professor K. Ramachandran were identified by Jaya Manazhy and Aja Manazhy, senior research scholars in the Department of Zoology of the college, under the guidance of K. Vijayakumaran Nair.
More than 15 species of Moniligaster have been reported from India. Right now, the specimen of the new species has been deposited at the Zoological Survey of India, Kozhikode. It has special characteristics such as a black line running along the middle region and three pairs of genital apertures. The species is most probably endemic to the Andaman and Nicobar islands.