336 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. ii* 



west of Glen Lyn on U.S. Hy. 460, July 13, 1947, Hobbs and Wilson (PCH 109). 

 SUMMERS county: Berger's Spring at Hinton, no date or collector given (USNM 

 17868). MONROE county: Indian Creek, August 6, 1900, U.S. Fish Commission 

 (USNM 17691). County not determined: "Crane Creek," August 8, 1900, 

 USFC (USNM 17687). 



The range of this striking branchiobdclHd does not correspond 

 closely with that of any crayfish known to me, but is remarkably 

 similar to that of Desmognathus quadramaculatus, a large plethodontid 

 salamander with apparently similar ecological requirements. In Vir- 

 ginia and West Virginia, Cambarincola ingens seems largely restricted 

 to the upper Kanawha drainage system, although spilling over (doubt- 

 less through recent stream captures) into the headwaters of both the 

 Roanoke and Tennessee rivers. Further south, known localities are 

 insufficient to invoke generalities, but the record for Macon County 

 in western North Carolina suggests that ingens will eventually be 

 found widespread as far as the mountains of Georgia. These Caro- 

 linian worms appear to be identical in sexual characters with others 

 from Virginia, a specific homogeneity which provides little informa- 

 tion about geographic variability but does permit the inference that 

 ingens is continuously distributed over its range with little or no 

 opportunities for local populations to become differentiated. 



Remarks.— That such an imposing species, abundant over its 

 fairly extensive distribution, would be overlooked for so long is due 

 in part to the traditional appeal to external characters in the definition 

 of species. Specimens of ingens have been reported by Ellis (1919) 

 under the name philadelphica, and I suspect that the material reported 

 as that species from Reed Creek, Wythe [misspelled "Wortle"] 

 County, Virginia, by Goodnight (1943) is likewise referable to ingens 

 which is common in that stream. 



Although collected from several species of crayfish, ingens seems 

 most commonly to be found on Camharus sciotensis Rhoades, which 

 is by far the largest member of its genus in the upper Kanawha River 

 system. Neither the crayfish nor the branchiobdellid have yet been 

 taken in the adjacent headwater streams of the James River system. 



The name ingens (Lat., huge) is given in consideration of the great 

 size of this species, not approached by any other cambarincolid of 

 eastern United States. 



PHILADELPHICA GROUP 



This is the trouble spot of the genus. To begin with, it contains 

 the little-known and frequently misunderstood species philadelphica 

 of Leidy, which is fairly widespread and variable in some respects. 

 This variation, however, is not of the same nature as that which 

 induced Ellis, and, following him, Goodnight, to make the species a 



