2o6 The Irish Naturalist. [August, 



ANNEUDS NEW TO IREI.AND. 



BY THE REV. HII^DERIC FRIEND. 



Among the material which I have collected in Ireland, 

 or received at various times from m}'' esteemed correspondents 

 I have found a number of species of annelids which, while 

 known from other countries, ai'e new to Ireland, and usually 

 to the British Isles. A few of these will be described or 

 recorded in the present paper. 



On June i8th, 1897, I received some specimens from Dr. 

 Trumbull, of Malahide, with the remark that they were " from 

 moss among the Portmarnock sandhills in this count}' (Dublin). 

 I first came upon them in November last (1896), but thejMvere 

 then too immature for identification." From my study of the 

 material received, together with the published accounts, I am 

 able to draw up the folloAving account. 



I. Frlderlcla Ratzell (Eisen). 



The full-^rown specimens were fully an inch in length, corresponding 

 with the 30 mm. of foreign authorities. The worms are very strong and 

 active, being able to jerk themselves to a considerable distance by 

 bending the body round in different directions, as an eel or Purple Worm 

 {^Lumbricus purpureus, Eisen) will do- They are pinkish in the adult, but 

 white in the younger stages. The setae in the front segments are usually 

 six in number, or three pairs in each bundle, the innermost being about 

 two-thirds the length of the outer pair. This is one of the characteristic 

 features of the Fridericias. The setae are strong and stout, in highly 

 muscular sacs ; a fact which full}' accounts for the activity of the 

 creatures when excited. On segment 12 a pair of orifices, with protrusible 

 sacs, are found. Internally we find the brain rounded off posteriorly, not 

 concave as in many worms. I could not, however, detect any ' copulatory 

 glands' or enlargements of the nerve-cord on segment 13 as described by 

 Hesse, though they are perfectly familiar to me in many other species. 

 They are not mentioned by Ude or Eisen, so that possibly Plesse was 

 examining an allied form. The body is striated as in many other Enchy- 

 trseids. One peculiarity deserves special note. In a young specimen 

 just a score of opaque white bodies appeared in the coelem of the middle 

 and hinder segments, which proved to be eggs. They were apparently 

 being gradually passed out of the body by the anal orifice. 



