248 Transactions. 



sample post. Each such sending should be accompanied by the 

 name and address of finder, and the locality at which the speci- 

 men was obtained. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE XLIII. 

 Fig. 1. Outline of a damaged specimen of a male Firola coronata ; x .', : 



the missing parts added from Vayssiere's drawing, in a broken 



line. 

 Fig. 2. A median tooth of the radula ; x 60. 

 Fig. 3. The base of the snout, viewed from in front, showing the eight 



preocular " thorns." a, anus ; /. ventral fin ; g, genital pore ; 



in, mouth ; v, visceral hump. 



Art. XXVIII. — An Account of some Earthworms from Little 



Barrier Island. 



By W. B. Benham, D.Sc, M.A., F.Z.S., Professor of Biology 



in the University of Otago. 



\Read before the Otago Institute, 10th October, 1905.] 



Plates XLI and XLII. 



Since the discovery that the earthworms inhabiting the North 

 Island are so different from those of the South Island, I have 

 endeavoured to obtain material from outlying islands, and I 

 was successful in interesting Mr. Robert Shakespear in the 

 matter. To him I owe the specimens with which this paper 

 is concerned, and to him I beg to tender my thanks. 



Little Barrier Island is a small outlier due west of Great 

 Barrier Island, which is itself due north of the Coromandel 

 Peninsula, with which it appears to have been at some pre- 

 vious age in continuity. 



Little Barrier Island is at present a sanctuary for native 

 birds, and is uninhabited except by the family of Mr. Shake- 

 spear, who acts as conservator of the island. 



The four species which I have received are — (1) Rhodo- 

 drilus parvus, n. sp. ; (2) Dinodriloides annectens, n. sp. : (3) Di- 

 porochceta gigantea, n. sp. ; (4) Diporochceta shakespeari, n. sp. 



Although these are characteristically New Zealand, they 

 are not definitely North Island, forms, for, with the exception 

 of Dinodriloides, species of the other two genera are known 

 from the South Island ; while Diporochceta has not hitherto 

 been found on the North Island itself, though it belongs 

 to the subfamily Megascolecince, to which the characteristic 

 North Island worms (Tokea) belong. Rhododrilus has been 

 obtained from the Kermadecs, the Chathams, the Campbell 



