18 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [Jan., 



A NEW SPECIES OF ENCHYTRJEID WORM FROM THE WHITE MOUNTAINS. 



BY R. SOUTHERN, B.SC. 



In the late summer of 1907, after the meeting of the International 

 Zoological Congress at Boston, Dr. Scharff visited the White Moun- 

 tains in New Hampshire. He informs me that earthworms were 

 very rarely met with in the forests at elevations of 2,000-3,000 feet, 

 but he succeeded in finding a few specimens of Helodrilus (Dendro- 

 bcena) rubidus Savigny, forma typica, under the bark of trees. The 

 typical form of this species has not yet been recorded with certainty 

 from North America. Michaelsen, in 1900/ doubtfully includes North 

 America, but later 2 he confines its distribution to Europe and Asia. 

 The variety subrubicunda (Eisen) is widely distributed over the whole 

 Northern Hemisphere. The typical form is endemic in the British 

 Isles, Germany, France, Switzerland, Siberia and Iceland. Its 

 occurrence on the latter island and on the eastern side of North 

 America is interesting with reference to theories of a former land 

 connection between Europe and North America by way of Iceland 

 and Greenland. 3 After a close examination of the American speci- 

 mens, I was unable to find a single character distinguishing them from 

 the same species, which occurs commonly in Ireland. 



In some damp moss, in which Dr. Scharff brought back some living 

 slugs and newts from the White Mountains at an elevation of 2,000 

 feet, I found a single mature specimen of an Enchytrseid worm which 

 appears to be new to science, and for which I propose the name 



Henlea scharffi sp. n. 



It is 10 mm. long, and milky-white in color. The epidermis of the 

 prostomium and first segment is covered with small glandular papillae. 

 The clitellum is formed by a mosaic of large granular glands, and 

 occupies the 12th segment. In the anterior ventral bundles there 

 are 5 seta?, which are approximately equal in length, slightly curved, 



1 Das Tierreich, Oligochceta, Lief. 10, 1900, p. 490. 



2 Die Geographische Yerbreitung der Oligochceten, Berlin, 1903, p. 140. 



3 R. F. Scharff, On the Evidences of a Former Land-bridge between Northern 

 Europe and North America, Proc. Royal Irish Academy, Vol. XXVIII, B, 1909, 

 p. 1. 



