160 Transactions. — Zoology. 



Banks Peninsula. The dominant species of native worms- 

 inhabiting the district — at least, the slopes around the house — ■ 

 are Acanthodrilus roscB, A. novcB-zealandicR, and an unde- 

 scribed species of the same genus. The three species were 

 obtained in a solid piece of land which probably had been 

 formerly ploughed, but not for eight or nine years. In the 

 lawns and gardens introduced worms are extremely rare. 

 The fact is noteworthy, as the district is longer settled than 

 others where they now occur in millions. The three species 

 named above are, as I have formerly explained, able to lubri- 

 cate their bodies externally with mucus. In the friable, 

 sandy soil of the Springston district these worms would enrich 

 and make the soil more coherent than other species ejecting^ 

 less-adhesive mucus.''' Both A. roscB and A. novcB-zealandia 

 are very common in the limestone districts of Oamaru and 

 Albury, where much of the land is extremely adhesive and 

 very rich. In a large paddock in front of Mostyn House, now 

 the residence of G. Jameson, Esq., a small slow -flowing 

 creek winds irregularly through it. In the small bends of the 

 creek where the plough had not touched I found some intro- 

 duced worms. The creek is subject to small floods, which 

 soon subside. On the night of the 30th July a heavy rain- 

 storm commenced, lasting all night. Next morning the creek 

 was in high flood, and spread out several feet from its bed on 

 the gently-sloping grassy sides. As the water subsided during 

 the day the worms ejected large castings composed of black 

 soil. They were ejected on the surface of the slopes as far up 

 as the flood- water had reached. They were the largest and 

 most perfect castings ejected by a species of introduced 

 Lumhricus that I have met with. The castings were ejected 

 by Lumhricus terrestris, L., some of the specimens being 

 exceptionally lai-ge and robust. I observed a few fresh cast- 

 ings in several parts of the open paddocks, but they w^ere of 

 small size. On the day after the storm I examined about 

 a mile of the Springston-Leeston Eoad for traces of worms. I 

 collected fourteen specimens of AUolobophora subrubicunda, 

 Eisen, and observed over a hundred individuals of -L. terrestris. 

 A considerable number of fresh tracks were visible on the 

 road where the worms had crawled over during the night. In 

 an old plantation of Eucalyptus glohosus I found two specimens 

 of Lumbricus 'purpureus, Eisen, beneath an old cake of cow- 

 manure. I also found three specimens of AUolobophora 



* These mucous secretions differ materially in several species. In 

 A. novce-zealanduc and A. roscP they are transparent, thick, and extremely 

 adhesive. In 0. vmltiporus, 0. antarclicus, and A. nnnccfcns they are of a 

 milk-like, thinnish, less-adhesive nature. I hope shortly to obtain an 

 analysis of each, together with several soils from several parts of the 

 plains still in their primitive state. 



