142 



Transactions. — Zoology. 



meagre, yet they are quite sufficient to indicate the differ- 

 ences between them, as will be seen in the following table : — 



There are several other differences, such as the details as 

 to the relative distances separating the chaetae, the form of 

 penial chaetaa, the shape of the diverticulum of the spermathecae, 

 the arrangement of " tubercula pubertatis," but these are not 

 known for all the four species, :;: and many are not capable 

 of being tabulated. Sufficient, however, is known to charac- 

 terize as distinct at least three of the species, for M. novce- 

 zealandice\ and M. monticola\ appear, from the brief summary 

 given in Beddard's monograph, to be very closely allied. 

 The latter species is one of the very few worms recorded from 

 the North Island ; it was collected at Mount Pirongia by 

 Captain Broun. 



This genus Microscolex is a very puzzling one, for, of 

 the sixteen species known outside New Zealand, all but 

 two (one of which is Algerian, the other Madeiran) inhabit 

 the American Continent. Of these, eleven belong to South 

 America and three inhabit California. There is a species 

 (M. dubius) recorded from Australia and (M. modesties) from 

 Italy, but each of these has been, almost beyond any doubt, 

 conveyed to these localities by man from its home in the 

 Argentine, where each occurs in abundance. Of the South 

 American forms, nine possess only one pair of testes and of 

 sperm-sacs, the remaining eleven species having these organs 



* Beddard does not note them in M. minutus, but I find that in 

 segment 18 a pair of large circular discs exist, just behind the male 

 pore on segment 17. 



t (5), p. 33. 



J (6), p. 467. 



