21 8 The Irish Naturalist. 



Brittany, during the month of March, 1886. It may be here remarked 

 that in England March is an excellent month for collecting earthworms, 

 as the sexual organs are then becoming active and fully developed. 

 Rosa states that the worms are about equal in dimensions to Lumbricus 

 purpureus, Eisen ; being from 2 to 2\ millim. in diameter, and 35 to 40 

 in length. The form is cylindrical, with the posterior part somewhat 

 attenuated. Colour violaceo-pallid dorsally, carneo-livid ventrally. 

 Segments about 100 in number. Cephalic lobe or prostomium with a 

 large backward prolongation which cuts or dovetails into the peristomium 

 to about one-half its longitudinal diameter, the lobe being destitute of 

 an inferior longitudinal groove. The male pore situated on segment 15, 

 and extending from the second to the third seta, the two adjoining 

 (14 and 16) being affected. Rosa terms these papillae carrying the male 

 pore the atria, but Beddard disputes the strict accuracy of this desig- 

 nation. I prefer for the present to state, when these glandular processes 

 occur, that the male pore is carried by or borne on papillae. The female 

 pore is well seen, says Rosa, as a small fissure on each side of segment 

 14 against the second setae, but on the side external to that occupied by 

 the male pore. The girdle occupies six segments, extending over 31-36, 

 slightly raised and not very closely fused. The Uibercula ptibertatis occur 

 ventrally on segments 33, 34, in the form of a continuous ridge (not on 

 papillae as in Allolobophora chlorotica, for example). Setae distant, the 

 lateral increasing from below upwards, that is, the interval between 2-3 

 is greater than between 1-2, and less than that between 3-4 ; the ventral 

 inferior (i-i) not greater than the lateral inferior (1-2); the dorsal 

 interval (4-4) being about twice that of the lateral superior (3-4.) The 

 setae on the ventral surface of segments 31, 32, 35 (before and behind the 

 titbercula pubertals) borne on relieved papillae. An interesting note on the 

 nephridiopores, which need not be reproduced in this connection, brings 

 Rosa's account to a close. 



In 1890 I found three specimens of this worm a few miles north of 

 Langholm, N.B., and the same year three others were discovered in an 

 immature condition near Carlisle, when they were at first mistaken for 

 the young of Lumbricus purptiretis, Eisen. More recently I have received 

 specimens from, or collected them myself, in Devonshire, Gloucester- 

 shire, Yorkshire, Northants, Lancashire, Lanark, Sussex, and several 

 Irish localities. It is therefore evident that the species is widely distri- 

 buted in Britain. 



It only needs that this species should be studied by the side of 

 Allolobophora Boeckii, the type upon which Eisen founded the subgenus 

 Dendrobcena, to show that they are very closely allied. I will not at this 

 point inquire what relationship exists between A. Boeckii and Lwiibricus 

 puter, Hoffmeister. Eisen says the girdle is usually composed of five 

 segments (29-33), over three of which (31-33) the hibercula pubertatis extend. 

 I give the figures according to the English notation, which makes the 

 peristomium the first segment, and places the male pore on the 15th. 

 Eisen's description, published in 1870, is faulty, owing to the inclusion of 

 two or three species under one name. The generic title adopted in 1S73 

 was based upon the fact that the worm was found under the bark of 



