MEGASCOLEX TEMPLETON. 183 



iu the year 1845, upon large worms found in the Alpine 

 regions of Ceylon, which had each ring in the mid- 

 dle of its length dilated into a ridge, which 

 carries on it, except in the mesial line of the 

 back, minute conical mamillae, 100 in number, 

 each surmounted with a minute bristle. The 

 author gives some annotations concerning the anatomical 

 structure of these worms, the situation of the pores on 

 the back etc. and concludes that without any doubt 

 they are closely allied to Lumhricus. About fifteen years 

 after the publication of Templeton's paper Schmarda ^) 

 created a new genus Perichaeta, based on earthworms, 

 also natives of Ceylon, characterized by having each 

 segment surrounded in the middle by a circular ridge, 

 which is beset over the whole circumference of the 

 body by a row of bristles. In describing this new genus 

 Schmarda mentiones also the genus Megascolex of Tem- 

 pleton, but unfortunately he seems to have misunderstood 

 Templeton's description , for he says, that the genus Me- 

 gascolex is quite different from Perichaeta by having only 

 a row of bristles on the back, whereas the only dif- 

 ference is that in Megascolex the bristles are wanting 

 in the mesial line of the back . The same mistake is made 

 by Grube ^j, who in his classical work „Die Familien der 

 Anneliden" erroneously characterizes the genus Megasco- 

 lex by »Rücken mit borstentragenden Papillen bedekt (rei- 

 hen weise langs den Seiten steh enden Borsten fehlen)". He 

 certainly has much contributed to the error finding its 

 way also in other books; so Vaillant ^) in his table of 

 the classification of the Earthworms repeats: »soies sur 

 des papilles rassem blees a la partie dorsale". 



The only author who calls the attention upon Schmarda's 

 mistake is Baird '*) ; he also examined the type-specimens 



1) Neue wirbellose Thiere, 1861, Bd. I, 2, p. 13. 



2) Die Familien der Anneliden, 1851, p. 144. 



3) Ann. Sc. natur. 5e Sér. Zool. T. X , p. 254. 



4) Proc. Z. S. L. 1869, p. 40. 



JSotes from tlae Leyden üMuseuxn, Vol. V. 



