Benham. — On Netc Zealand Earthivorms. 161 



I am unable to identify it with any of Beddard's species of 

 OctochcBtus, though it approaches in size his Acanthodrilus 

 imludosus ; it must be left as 0. levis. 



(b.) The bottle labelled " Dunedin " contains also a single 

 individual, measuring 4 in. ; it is Allolohoplwra caliginosa, an 

 imported Lumbricid, and a very common worm in the neigh- 

 bourhood. 



Hutton's statement that the clitellum commences " be- 

 tween the 15th and 25th" segments is evidently due to a con- 

 fusion of the two distinct worms, which may have agreed in 

 colour. The following sentence likewise shows this : "Male 

 genital openings on the 10th to the 15th segments." In 

 Allolohoj)hora the male pore is on the 15th, in Acantho- 

 drihds the spermathecal pore is in the region of the 10th 

 segment. Further, " Vulvae on the two last segments of the 

 clitellum " may refer either to the spermiducal gland-pores 

 of Acanthodrilid or to the tubercula pubertatis of the Lum- 

 bricid. 



4. Lumbricus annulatus. 



One bottle, labelled " Dunedin," contains four individuals, 

 only one of which possesses a clitellum; the three others, 

 though immature and badly preserved, show by their size and 

 by the position of the first dorsal pore that they are the same 

 species as the mature specimen, which is the common British 

 brandling worm, Allolohophora fcetida. Hutton himself re- 

 cognised the resemblances, and considered the possibility of 

 the identity. I must correct his statement that the clitellum 

 is " not tuberculated inferiorly " ; the tubercles, indeed, exist 

 on the usual segments — 28, 29, 30, and partly 31 — but they 

 form a continuous though indistinct ridge. Again, the " male 

 openings" — here he means the male pores, not, as usual, the 

 spermathecae — are on the 15th segment, not on the " 16th." 



Now we come to his two species of Megascolex : — 



5. Megascolex sylvestris. 



One bottle, from Dunedin, contains two entire individuals 

 and two portions. All are very poorly preserved, but are 

 sufficiently in condition to show that the worm belongs to the 

 genus PlagiochcBta, Benham,* as Beddard has already sur- 

 mised.! 



At present only one species of Plagiochata is definitely 

 characterized — viz., P. punctata, which was collected by Mr. 

 E. Vaughan Jennings at Maungatua, and sent to the British 

 Museum, for the authorities of which I examined and named 



*" Notes on Two Acanthodriloid Earthworms from New Zealand," 

 Quart. Journ. Micros. Sci., xxxiii., 1892, p. 289. 

 t Proc. Zool. Soc, 1892, p. 667. 

 11 



