Art. l.—Prdlmlnarii Xotice of Victorian Kartlnvorni'i, 



Part II. Tha (icnuH Pevichceta. _,„„-«-.,_ 



(With Plates II, III, IV, V, VI, VII.) /'^'y^^'^^ '^^^ 





Profi 



By W. BaldwixX Spencer, M.A. i,^.j h I B R A R Y • - 



essor of Biology in the University of Melbouru'^II^N. ^^ ^ ' y'c^ 

 [Read March 10, 1892.] ^^^_J--^ 



This ficcouiit includes tlie description of twenty-two 

 species of the genus Perichfeta, which have up to the present 

 time been collected in Victoria. Two of these, Perichceia 

 dorsalis and baker i, have been previously described by 

 Mr. J. J. Fletcher, who obtained them from Gippsland. My 

 own collection has been made in different parts of Victoria, 

 and especiall}^ in the South Eastern district, where Gippsland 

 is peculiarly rich. As in the case of the genera Cryptodrilus 

 and Megascolides, so in that of Perichseta, the forms 

 described are at present, for the sake of convenience, 

 referred to the one genus, though this will undoubtedly 

 have to be broken up, and at the same time, certain forms 

 provisionally as yet referred to it, may have to be placed 

 under other existing genera. With this, Mr. Fletcher and 

 myself will deal in our extended monograph. Sufficient 

 details only are now given to serve for the identification of 

 the species. 



We have in Victoria only one species which is reall_y 

 widely distributed — this is P. dorsalis, which was first 

 described by Fletcher from Warragul, Gippsland. Since 

 then it has been obtained in West and South Gippsland, 

 from the Otway district, from the Grampians, and from 

 Creswick and Castlemaine. It is not only widely spread, 

 but is also abundant in numbers, almost always forming the 

 majority of specimens of any collection in West or South 

 GipjDsland especially. It is interesting to note that an allied 

 form, Peric/iceta stirlingi, is apparently prevalent in South 

 Australia. 



