BY J. J. FLETCHER, M.A., B.SC. 971 



Hah. — Sydney (believed to be introduced from the Mauritius). 



The worms of this species are not uncommon in the soil of pot- 

 plants in Sydney conservatories, bush-houses, and nurseries, and 

 are regarded as a nuisance by horticulturists on account of their 

 interfering with the drainage of the pots. My attention was called 

 to them by Mr. Masters, to whom I am indebted for specimens and 

 for the information that they are not found in garden soil, and by 

 nurserymen are believed to have been brought with plants from 

 Mauritius to one .of the Sydney nurseries, whence they have distri- 

 buted with pot-plants. At present only one species of earthworm is 

 known from Mauritius, Lampilo Mauritii of Kinberg, but of which 

 Perrier (1) after an examination of Kinberg's specimens says that it 

 it is simply a species of Perichceta. (2) Under any circumstances 

 it is different from the worm described above, because Kinberg says 

 of it that the buccal segment is not incised anteriorly, and that the 

 anterior setae are more numerous (44) than the posterior ones 



(30-32). 



D. INCERTjE sedis. 



Of the three worms from Percy Island one has the following 

 characters: — Length 92 mm., breadth 6*5 mm., number of segments 

 144; body flattened slightly from above and nearly elliptical in 

 section, tapering anteriorly ; no trace of a clitellum ; a pah* of 

 small papillae on xvm, doubtless carrying the male pores but these 

 are not distinct ; on the depression between the papillae is 

 apparently a single median aperture ; setae very long, arranged in 

 eight rows, four ventral and four lateral, for the most part 

 straight and regular, but in about the posterior third of the 

 body the two outer rows on each side are most irregular, the 

 setae on some segments being twice as far apart as on others, 

 but not alternating regularly from segment to segment ; in the 

 anterior region where the setae are shorter they project backwards, 

 but in the posterior region they project forwards, more noticeably 

 so in the case of the lateral rows ; the apertures of the oviducts 



and of the spermathecae as well as nephridiopores are not discernible. 

 The body is lightly grooved in the median dorsal line. 



(1) Comptes Rendus, Tome CII, No. 15, April 1886, p. 876. 



(2) Loc. cit. p. 103. 



