OLIGOCH^TA. 



251 



ON A COLLECTION OF OLIGOCHiETA, MAINLY 

 FROM CEYLON. 



By Major J. Stephenson, D.Sc, I.M.S., 



Professor of Biology, Oovermnent College, Lahore. 

 (With two Plates.) 



PAaE 

 Introduction . . , . 251 



Dero zeylanica, sp. nov. . . 252 



Aulophorus palustris, Mchlsn. . . 255 

 Hesperodrilus zeylanicus,sp. nov. 257 

 Limnodrilus socialia, Stephenson 260 

 Drawida annandalei, sp. nov. . . 261 

 Lampito mauritii, Kinb., var., 

 zeylanica, var. nov. . . 262 



Megascolex annandalei, sp. nov. 

 Megascolex pattipolensis ,ap. nov 

 Megascolex bifoveatua, sp. nov. 

 Megascolex curtus, sp. nov. 

 Megascolex quint us, sp. nov. 

 Megascolex sextus, sp. nov. 

 Pheretima hawayana (Rosa) 

 Dichogaster affinis (Mchlsn.) 



PAGE 



. 263 

 265 

 266 

 267 

 268 

 270 

 271 

 273 



Introduction. 



TN November of last year (1911) I reqpived from Dr. Annandale 

 -*- of the Indian Museum, Calcutta, an interesting collection of 

 Oligochseta made by him in Ceylon during the preceding month, with 

 one tube, containing the single specimen of Drawida annandalei, from 

 Tanjore in South India. The species belong to both of the large 

 subdivisions of the Order, the Microdrili and Megadrili ; apecuharity 

 about the habitat of the specimens is that they were all taken either 

 in water or in rotten wood ; none of them, therefore, are " earth- 

 worms " in the literal sense of the word. 



In 1909 Michaelsen (8) wrote, at the beginning of a communication 

 describing a new Megascolex from Ceylon : "As the earthworm 

 fauna of Ceylon belongs to the best known of the tropics, I was 

 surprised at seeing that these worms represented a new species. 

 This circumstance gives a new indication of the richness of the 

 Oligochset fauna of Ceylon, and of our being far from a complete 

 knowledge of the latter." 



The same facts are more forcibly exemplified by the results of 

 the examination of the present collection. Fourteen species were 

 represented (excluding one specimen which was unidentifiable) in 

 the six tubes ; of the fourteen, nine are new, while another is 

 sufficiently distinct to rank as a new variety. One tube was a 

 miniature museum in itself ; besides an example of Pheretima 

 hawayana, it contained, represented mostly by single specimens, 

 six species of Megascolex, all new, A partial explanation of the 

 extremely large proportion of new species is perhaps to be found in 

 the peculiar habitat from which they were drawn. 



2 L 6(7)12 



