THE 



ESSEX NATURALIST 



BKING THE 



3ournal of tbc )Beec]: jficlb Club 



FOR 1899 AND 1900. 



(VOLUME XL) 



BRITISH WELL-WORMS, (PHREORYCTES), 

 WITH ESPECIAL REFERENCE TO A 

 UNIQUE SPECIMEN FROM CHELMSFORD, 

 ESSEX. 



By the Rev. HILDERIC FRIEND. 



[Raul Fcbniary 25th, 1899.] 



TOWARDS the end of 1895, Mr. Frank Beddard, M.A., 

 Prosector to the Zoological Societ)' of London, lirought 

 out his magnificent Monograph of the Oligochcrta. It was the only 

 attempt that has yet been made in England to bring our know- 

 ledge of earthworms and fresh water annelids up-to-date, and 

 may be regarded as the basis upon which all future work in this 

 department of biological research must rest. In this splendid 

 work we find several pages devoted to the study of a genus of 

 annelids known as " Well-worms," and the following sentence is, 

 for us, of peculiar interest. " The genus Phreovyctes has been 

 found in a good many parts of Europe (not in England) and in 

 New Zealand, and in North America." Thus we learn 

 definitely that in 1895 no species of Well- worm had been found 

 in this country, or at least that no species had been described as 

 native with us. 



It now appears that there had been a solitary specimen of a 

 new species of Phreovyctes in my possession for three years 

 previous to the publication of the Monograph. Owing to the 

 scantiness of the material, however, and the fact that we had no 

 definite clue to the history of the worm, the remark of IMr. 

 Beddard has remained practically unaltered till the present time. 



