614 NOTES ON AUSTRALIAN EARTHWORMS, 



whole of segment xviii. Hence it seems to me that the chief dilfer- 

 ence between the genera Notoscolex and Cryptodrilus is becoming 

 narrowed down to the question of segment xviii being included in 

 the girdle. I begin to suspect therefore that when I come to 

 revise the species already described, with additional material to 

 work iipon, it may be necessary to include the latter in the former 

 genus, or at any rate to regard it as a sub-genus ; and to deal with 

 Didymog aster in a similar same manner, viz., to treat it as a sub- 

 genus of, or include it in Dlgaster. Under any circumstances the 

 name Didymogaster will have to be changed, as, since I made use 

 of it, I find that it is already pre-occupied for a genus of insects. 



Cryptodrilus mediterreus, n. sp. 



Ten (spirit) specimens are from 7*3 to 11 cm. long, 4-5 mm. 

 broad, and comprise from 130-150 segments. A young specimen 

 4"2 cm. long, and 2^ mm. wide comprises 132 segments. 



Colour above sooty-brown, darkest in the anterior portion of the 

 body, especially in front of the clitellum, lighter below, the 

 clitellum with a tinge of red or purplish. Prostomium slightly 

 depressed (in spirit specimens), does not divide the buccal ring ; 

 the latter completely divided by a number of fine longitudinal 

 groovings extending right kcross it.* 



Segments ai-e more or less completely tri-annulate after about 

 segment iv. 



Setae in eight longitudiuiil rows, the first and second on each 

 side ventral, the third lateral, the fourth dorsal ; the first about 

 midway between the second and the median ventral line, the third 

 from the second about twice as far as the latter is from the first, 

 the fourth about midway between the third and the median dorsal 

 line and a little further from the third than this is fx^om the second. 



Clitellum comprises three complete segments, xiv-xvi, together 

 with frequently a variable portion of the posterior annulus of 

 XIII, and usually the whole of the anterior one of xvii ; complete 

 all round. 



• As one of the portions into which the buccal ring is so divided is 

 immediately posterior to the prostomium, in some specimens it appears as 

 though the latter completely divided the former ; this however is not reall}- 

 the case. 



