PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Vol. 84 Washington : 1937 No. 3009 



NEW NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES OF EARTHWORMS 

 OF THE FAMILY MEGASCOLECIDAE 



By Frank Smith 



Professor Emeriius, University of Illinois 



Among the more interesting specimens of Oligochaeta in the col- 

 lections of the writer are some that were taken in Oregon and that 

 belong to new species of the genera MegascoUdes McCoy and Plu- 

 tellus E. Perrier. Only one North American species of Megascol- 

 ides and only a few of Plutellus^ chiefly from California, have been 



described. 



SOURCE OF MATERIAL 



A brief description of MegascoUdes americanus Smith was pub- 

 lished by the writer in 1897, but it was necessarily incomplete be- 

 cause the only available material for study consisted of four speci- 

 mens that had been collected at a time of sexual inactivity when 

 the reproductive organs were not well developed. The specimens 

 were received from R. W. Doane, of the Washington State Agri- 

 cultural College at Pullman, Wash. No other material has since 

 been available for study until 1931, when five specimens were re- 

 ceived from Roy Hansberry, of the same institution. They were 

 collected by Dr. Arthur Svihla on March 21, 1931, again at a time 

 when the reproductive organs were not at the height of activity. 

 Later in the same year a specimen of the same species was received 

 for identification that had been collected at Moscow, Idaho, a few 

 miles east of Pullman. A study of this material recently received, 

 together with a further study of the original specimens, has brought 

 to light additional data. 



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