NOTES ON AUSTRALIAN EARTHWORMS. 



Part I. 



By J. J. Fletcher, M.A., B.Sc. 



(Plates VIII. and IX.) 



In his well-known work on " Vegetable Mould and Earth- 

 worms," Mr. Darwin, probably influenced by the recollections of 

 his travels over the Hawkesbury sandstone country during a 

 very hot and dry month (January 183G), says that, until he 

 was informed by Mr. KrefFt to the contrary, he should scarcely 

 have thought earthworms would be common in New South Wales 

 with its dry climate. Mr. KreffVs information was, however, of 

 a general nature, and from the character of the castings sent by 

 him to Mr. Darwin, probably referred only to the worms found in 

 the neighbourhood of Sydney. Having myself collected specimens 

 of five new, and one undescribed species of earthworms from two 

 localities, both oases of rich volcanic soil in the Hawkesbury 

 sandstone formation, and having heard from gentlemen who have 

 actually seen specimens, of the existence of large worms in the 

 Hunter and Manning River districts, it seems safe, considering 

 how many rich tracts of similar country are yet unsearchecl, to hazard 

 the conjecture that, when the earthworms of this colony have been 

 systematically collected and described, it will be found, at any 

 rate in the coastal districts where the soil is good, that they 

 are by no means scarce, and, as regards both individuals and 

 species, will compare favourably in point of numbers with earth- 

 worms in other parts of the world. As there are several new 

 worms from Queensland in the Macleay Museum, and as both Dr. 

 Ramsay and Mr. Masters have noticed large worms in several 

 districts of the same colony, a similar statement may be made 

 concerning both it and, probably, the coastal districts of more or less 

 of the whole continent, wherever there is good soil. The alluvial 



