v] RELATIVE FREQUENCY 79 



where it is represented by at least twelve different 

 species. 



We have therefore in Madagascar and the sur- 

 rounding islands only two peculiar genera, only four 

 genera which can be regarded as endemic, and only 

 about seventeen peculiar species. 



Passing eastward and crossing the Indian Ocean 

 we come to the Continent of Asia, and we shall first 

 direct attention to the peninsula of India and ad- 

 jacent parts of Burmah and the island of Ceylon, of 

 which there has been accumulated a great deal of 

 knowledge concerning the Oligochaetous fauna. 



This quarter of the globe differs quite as much 

 from any that have been hitherto considered as they 

 do among themselves. We have left behind us the 

 Geoscolecidae with the exception of the ubiquitous 

 and clearly peregrine Pontoscolex, and the genus 

 Glyplridrilus, which, being aquatic at times, is perhaps 

 hardly to be considered in the present survey. 



We have also in this Indian region the equally 

 ubiquitous Eudrilus engeniae which need not of 

 course detain us further. The Lumbricidae are for the 

 most part of European forms with the exception of 

 Helodrilus indicus conceivably an actual inhabitant 

 of India. It is among the Megascolecidae that the 

 vast majority of the forms endemic in India are to 

 be found. We shall take this family according to 

 its sub-families. In the first place we note that the 



