238 



BRITISH ANNELIDS. 



both the foregoing species have their male pore on segment fifteen, 

 it is found on the thirteenth in A/iurus, and thus they may be readily 

 distinguished. A brief tabular arrangement may present the matter 

 in clearer light, and help to pave the way for a rather more detailed 

 account of the different genera : — 



Tabular View of British Lumbrici. 



Let us imagine the naturalist going out with a collecting tin 

 lightly filled with damp moss, and securing a dozen specimens of 

 worms from different localities. He wants to know first of all what 

 genera he has procured, and takes them out one by one for examina- 

 tion. With his pocket lens he first examines the head and finds the 

 first ring cut right through by the lip. This points to Lumbricus. 

 He next counts the segments from the head to the girdle, and finds 

 upwards of twenty-two. It cannot, therefore, be Allurus. It is a 

 dark red or ruddy brown colour, and will therefore not be Allclobo- 

 phora, unless it is an exception, and then the shape of the mortise 

 and tenon is decisive. 



Putting this aside as a species of Lutnbricus, he takes up another. 

 It is a small worm but mature, or possessed of a girdle, and has a 

 happy method of progressing tail foremost ; while the tail, instead of 

 being flat round or oval, is sharp-angled, or square. The mortise 

 and tenon is imperfect, so it may be either Allurus or Allolobophora 

 but the male pore is on the thirteenth and the girdle on the twenty- 

 second segment, so it must be Allurus. Now since we have at pre- 



