AiiT. XVII. — PreUmiiiiirij Det^criptioii of Victorian Earth- 

 worms. Part I. — The Genera Cryptodrilas and 

 Megascolides. 



By W. Baldwin Spencek, M.A. 



Professor of Biology in the University of Melbourne. 



(With Plates XIV, XV, XVI, XVII, XVIII, XIX.) 



[Eead December 10, 1891.] 



For the past four year.s I have been gradually collecting 

 earth-worms as opportunities offered and the present paper 

 merely contains brief descriptions of forms of the genera 

 Cryptodrilus and Megascolides which have been met with 

 in Victoria. 



Mr. J. J. Fletcher, to whom we owe almost entirely our 

 knowledge of Australian earth-worms described up to the 

 present time, has already published brief accounts of, 

 principally, New South Wales forms. I am much indebted 

 to him both for specimens of those which he has described 

 and for valuable advice and information, and it may perhaps 

 be as well to state here that we are at present engaged to- 

 gether upon a somewhat extensive monograph dealing with 

 Australian earth-worms. The completion of this joint work 

 will of necessity occupy considerable time, though we hope to 

 publish very shortly the first part, which will deal with the 

 systematic arrangement of the forms. 



Our collection is very extensive, and necessitates a revision 

 of the genera, but meanwhile we have thought it advisable 

 to adhere to existing genera and to give names which will 

 serve at present for identification. 



In the preliminary notices of Victorian forms, I have 

 purposely refrained from dealing with any but macroscopic 



