VOL. Iv. ] California Earth-Worms. 249° 
With these first rains in October the worms leave their self-made 
clay chambers and ascend to the upper strata where they live and 
propagate during the winter months, until ‘April and May, when 
the same process of summer-rest is gone through again. In the 
large and dry valleys earth-worms are always scarce, owing, 
of course, to the greater dryness of the plains in summer time. 
In the driest places the worms are entirely wanting, except, 
possibly, in some bogs and swamps, where an indigenous species 
of Allolobophora is always common. : 
The higher earth-worms (the water-worms excepted) in Cali- 
fornia can be referred principally to two large families, Lum- 
bricidze and Eudrilidee, there being besides one single species of 
Acanthodrilide. It must, however, be stated that the Pacific Coast 
has not been thoroughly explored, and many more species, genera 
and families, are likely to be discovered. A species of Perichzeta 
is found in a nursery hothouse in San Francisco, undoubtedly 
introduced from the tropics. In the Baja California cape region 
other tropical forms appear, and the common earth-worm there 
is a species of Urochzeta, as-well as one or more of Allolobophora. 
So far no true earth-worms have been described or even 
enumerated from California with the exception of two species 
described by Kinberg. About thirty years ago he visited Cali- 
fornia and described Lumbricus apiz from Sausalito near San 
Francisco and Pheretima Californica from the same place. But 
the descriptions of these species are so insufficient that the worms 
cannot even be identified as to family, much less to genera and 
species. They must of course be ignored. 
‘* Pheretima,” he says, “ has from forty to fifty-six setze on every 
segment, and was found both in the hills of San Francisco and 
in soil at Sausalito.” But though I have repeatedly searched in 
those localities I never succeeded in finding any worms thus 
characterized, and I am inclined to think that Kinberg’s labels 
became mixed, and that Pheretima at least was never found in 
this State. Of the family Lumbricide California possesses 
probably a dozen species, some of which are common the world 
Over. There are, however, a number of indigenous species, the 
description of which will be reserved for a future article. The 
most common of the Lumbricide is a large species of Allolobo- 
