XXII. ON A COLLECTION OF OLIGOCHAETA 



FROM VARIOUS PARTS OF INDIA 



AND FURTHER INDIA. 



By J. Stephenson, D.Sc.^ M.B., Lieut. -Col. I. M.S., Professor of 

 Zoology, Government College, Lahore. 



(Plates XVI— XVIII.) 



Contexts. 



Introduction ... ... ... ... ... P- 353 



The genus Hophchaefella ... ... ... ... p- 354 



On other suppo-sed species of the genus Hoplocliaetella ... p. 358 

 The systematic position and relationships of the genus Hoplo- 

 cliaetella ... ... .. ... .. p. 359 



Systematic account ... ... ... .. ... p. 364 



INTRODUCTION. 



The gr,eater part of the present communication deals with a 

 number of specimens of Oligochaeta, many of them of considerable 

 interest, which have lately been added to the collection of the 

 Indian Museum ; my thanks are due to Dr. Annandale, Director of 

 the Zoological Survey of India, for the opportunity of examining 

 them. I have also added records, and sometimes notes or descrip- 

 tions, of the worms which have come into my hands from else- 

 where during the past year or so. 



The chief localities which have yielded material of interest 

 have been the following :— 



(i). Murree, in the Himalayas of the N. Punjab. The list of 

 the earthworms of the Punjab is »till a short one, and the addition 

 of even two species is an event of some local interest. One of 

 these two species is Drawida japonica, a peregrine species which 

 has been found in China, Japan, and the Bahamas, but which has 

 not, curiously, hitherto been certainly identified from India. Also 

 fi;om Murree I have received a Helodrilus which to the best of my 

 knowledge is new ; though as the records of this genus are scattered, 

 and in part inaccessible to me, I ought to express myself with cau- 

 tion ; this perhaps represents one of the outposts of the Lum- 

 bricidae in their southward extension from Palaearctic regions, 

 another being possibly Helodrilus {Bimastus) indicus, Mchlsn. (c/. 

 Michaelsen, 13), from Calcutta. 



(2). Rangamati, in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bengal,— near 

 the head of the Bay of Bengal,— is quite a nest of species of 

 Drawida. I need only point out that the occurrence of a number 

 of endemic species in this region. emphasizes what I wrote formerly, 

 on the geographical aspect of the facts of distribution of the genus 

 Drawida, after describing a number of new species of the genus 

 from the Abor countrj'- (17). 



