390 NOTES ON AUSTRALIAN EARTHWORMS, 



PERICHiETA MONTICOLA, n. Sp. 



The two largest (contracted) spirit specimens comprising 124 

 and 151 segments are 12-7 cm. and 15*5 cm. long respectively, 

 and 7 mm. wide. The colour above is dark reddish brown, darkest in 

 front of the clitellum (which is lighter) and for some distance 

 behind it, and gradually becoming lighter posteriorly ; below 

 lighter, greyish. Prostomium divides the buccal ring almost 

 completely. 



Clitellum of three complete segments, xiv to xvi, and involving 

 a portion of xiii or of xvii, or of both. 



The number of setse varies considerably in different regions of 

 the body, and slightly in different specimens, so that I have not 

 found two exactly alike in detail. The setigerous segments up to 

 about XIII normally appear to have 16 setse per segment, though 

 after the first three or four there may be 17, 18 or even 20; on 

 the girdle this number may increase to 22 or 24, or in one case 27; 

 a few segments further back there may be 24-28 ; the number 

 eventually increasing in the posterior region to 34 or 36, or in one 

 case 50. In front of the clitellum the intervals devoid of setse 

 are very broad in this species, the dorsal one especially so. 

 Behind the girdle the ventral one narrows gradually but remains 

 distinct throughout, whereas the dorsal one gradually narrows so 

 much as to become hardly noticeable. The setse from the anterior 

 region are thicker and longer than those from further back. 



The male pores are on papillee on xviil, about in a line with 4th 

 row of setae. The oviducts open close together on a depression on 

 XIV. The two pairs of spermathecal pores are between vii and viii, 

 and VIII and ix, just ventrad of the first row of setse. The accessory 

 copulatory structures not or scarcely noticeable except when the 

 worms are breeding, comprise — a pair of slit-like depressions on a 

 swollen area in the line of setae but in the interval devoid of them on 

 the ventral surface of ix ; a pair of 8-Iike swollen masses on ventral 

 surface of x, with four depressions perhaps pores ; on the flattened 



