Two new species of Drawida Michaelsen, 1900, namely Drawida polydiverticulata Narayanan & Julka, sp. n. and Drawida thomasi Narayanan & Julka, sp. n., are described from material collected from the Indian state of Kerala, which lies in the Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot. Drawida elegans Rao, 1921, Drawida kanarensis Stephenson, 1917, Drawida modesta Rao, 1921, Drawida somavarpatana Rao, 1921, and Drawida thurstoni Gates, 1945 are recorded for the first time from the state.

A checklist of earthworm species hitherto known from Kerala, a constituent of the Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot in India, is presented. In total, 88 species and subspecies are recorded, of which 55 are Kerala endemics, 9 near endemics, 14 exotics and 10 native peregrines. These belong to 26 genera and 9 families. The checklist includes the literature citation to the original description, type locality, any significant subsequent generic placements, and the district distributional pattern for each species/ subspecies.

Three new species of Moniligaster Perrier, 1872, namely M. bahli Narayanan & Julka, sp. nov., M. blakemorei Narayanan & Julka, sp. nov. and M. keralensis Narayanan & Julka, sp. nov. are described from materials collected from the Indian state of Kerala. Moniligaster cernosvitovi Gates, 1962, Moniligaster horsti Gates, 1940, Moniligaster michaelseni Gates, 1940 and Moniligaster stephensoni Gates, 1940 are recorded for the first time from the state. With the new findings, a total of 10 Moniligaster species are known from Kerala. Moniligaster species are restricted to southern peninsular India, except Moniligaster ivaniosi Manazhy, 2011, decribed from the Andaman Islands, outside the currently known distributional range of the genus. Hence we critically reviewed the original description and reinvestigated the holotype. As a result, Moniligaster ivaniosi is considered a junior synonym of Drawida nepalensis Michaelsen, 1907.

This study presents a comprehensive catalogue of the moniligastrid earthworms (Moniligastrida, Moniligastridae) of the world. A total of 176 valid species/subspecies belonging to 5 genera are known to exist in this primitive family. Drawida is the speciose genus with 147 species/subspecies. Of the various moniligastrids, three species of Drawida are considered as peregrine outside its normal Asian range. Among the valid species, occurrence of 30.68% are known only from the type locality. It is noteworthy that the types of 125 (71.02%) species are currently known to exist in various repositories around the world. The existence of the remaining species can only be inferred from the literature since their types are either non-existent, missing, dried out, or lost. Present catalogue includes valid scientific names, synonyms, type locality, type respository details along with registration number, geographic distribution pattern within its native range, and references.