354 Records of the Indian Museum. [Vol. XIII, 



(3). New species of Perionyx from the Eastern Himalayas are 

 in accordance with what we should expect from the known geo- 

 graphical distribution of the genus. 



(4). From Portuguese India and the neighbourhood Mr. 

 Kemp has collected a number of interesting species ; these include 

 Erythraeodrilus kinneari, recently described by me (19), and no 

 fewer than five species of a genus which I believe to be that of 

 which Bourne's Perichaeta stuarti is the type, and which is now 

 known as H oplochaetella \ we might indeed speak of a " nest " of 

 these species in this region. As the discussion of this material is 

 complicated, I propose to devote an introductory chapter to it, 

 instead of interrupting the systematic portion of the paper by an 

 excursus of such an extent, — one which, in addition, touches on 

 points of somewhat wider interest. 



THE GENUS HOPLOCHAETELLA. 



In 1886 Bourne published, in a " Preliminary notice of Earth- 

 worms from the Nilgiris and Shevaroys " (7), a short description 

 of a species which he called Perichaeta stuarti. Beddard in 1890 

 (i) established for this worm the genus Hoplochaeta ; but, in 1895 

 (3) he thought that it might be referable to Benham's genus 

 Plagiochaeta , and that the name Hoplochaeta had perhaps better be 

 withdrawn, pending further investigations by the discoverer of the 

 species ; the worm does not find a place at all in his systematic 

 account of species and genera. Michaelsen, however, in 1900 (10) 

 retained the genus under the name Hoplochaetella [Hoplochaeta 

 having been found to be preoccupied), and it has since figured in 

 his lists of Indian Earthworms (13, 14). The worm has played a 

 part in zoogeographical discussions, since Michaelsen (13) has re- 

 ferred to this genus several species described by Benham from the 

 South Island of New Zealand as Plagiochaeta (4), and has thus 

 illustrated the connection between the Oligochaete fauna of New 

 Zealand and India. 



All that we know of the anatomy of the Indian Hoplochaetella, 

 however, is derived from Bourne's original account. Though 

 Bourne subsequently expanded the descriptions of the Monili- 

 gastridae enumerated in his preliminary account, he did not do so for 

 Perichaeta stuarti nor for most of the other Megascolecidae. I 

 venture therefore, — since the ascription of five species obtained by 

 Mr. Kemp to the genus of which Perichaeta stuarti is the type re- 

 quires some justification, — to transcribe Bourne's words. 



"Perichaeta stuarti, sp. n. 



The clitellum extends over somites xiv, xv, and xvi ; it is ver}^ 

 well marked. 



There are two pairs of male pores in somites xvii and xix res- 

 pectively ; these are all four placed upon a whitish, slightly de- 

 pressed patchy which thus extends over the greater portion of 



