PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



issued km*V\A^ vl^i ^y '^« 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM 

 Vol. 85 Wa.Wngton: 1939 No. 3040 



ON SOME SPECIES OF CHINESE EARTHWORMS, WITH 

 SPECIAL REFERENCE TO SPECIMENS COLLECTED IN 

 SZECHWAN BY DR. D. C. GRAHAM 



By G. E. Gates 



Since 1921 Dr. David C. Graham, of the West China Mission of 

 the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society, has been collecting 

 much natural-history material in the vicinity of his station at Suifu, 

 Province of Szechwan, western China, as well as in the course of his 

 travels through that Province. At the request of Dr. Waldo L. 

 Sclunitt, of the United States National Museum, I undertook the 

 study of Dr. Graham's earthworms and began work in 1926. At 

 that time little was known of the earthworms of China and nothing 

 at all of the oligochaete fauna of the interior Province of Szechwan. 

 Most of the known Chinese species had been characterized so inade- 

 quately that it was considered advisable to postpone publication until 

 the types could be examined. Early in 1931, while I was on fur- 

 lough from my duties at Judson College, Rangoon, the opportunity 

 first came for me to study material in European museums, but cur- 

 rency fluctuations following American abandonment of the gold 

 standard necessitated my abrupt departure from Europe before the 

 work was completed. Before leaving, however, I studied the types or 

 representative portions of type series of all species discussed herein 

 except Drawida jap onica (Michaelsen), Pheretima hupeiensis (Mich- 

 aelsen), and P. asiatica (Michaelsen). 



The original manuscript of this paper was completed in 1934, but 

 as it was then impossible to publish it in full a preliminary report 



82345—39 1 405 



