vi] PEREGRINE FORMS 101 



There remains the somewhat doubtful P. elongata from 

 Peru which has not been very fully described. There 

 is thus no convincing evidence of species really indi- 

 genous to and confined to any part of America. Some 

 of these species also occur in many other parts of the 

 world. For instance, P. heterochaeta is very widely 

 spread indeed, occurring as it does in Australia, New 

 Caledonia, Madagascar, and even England (in hot- 

 houses). This species indeed is the most prevalent 

 of all Pheretimas and seems to be abundant in 

 gatherings of earthworms from various localities as 

 are Eudrilus and Pontoscolex. 



From the island of Madagascar and neighbouring 

 islands the following species of Pheretima have been 

 obtained and identified by Dr Michaelsen : viz. 

 Pheretima pentact/stis, P.peregrinus, P. heterochaeta, 

 P. biserlalis, P. roderlcensis, P. hoidleti, P. robusta, 

 P. mauritiana, P. taprobanae, and P. voeltzkovi It 

 will be noticed that the majority of these are also in- 

 cluded in the list from South America, and that many 

 of them are also found in other parts of the world, and 

 nearly all of them in the East. There remain a few 

 which are doubtful. It is quite possible that P. mauri- 

 tiana is the same as P. ha tea //ana and P. bermudensis, 

 in which case it has a world-wide range. P. tapro- 

 banae is well known as a Ceylon species. P. robusta 

 also occurs in the East Indian islands. There remain 

 P. pentaeystis, P. peregrinus, and P. voeltzkovi. 



