NOTES. 11?) 



has not been previously recorded in Ceylon (there existed a 



massive fragment in the original Museum collection), and it is to 



be hoped that the examination of this locality ■will lead to its 



discovei'y in other districts. 



A. K. COOMARASWAMY. 



2. Peregrine Earthworms at Peradeniya. — A collection of 

 earthworms made by Dr. H. Uzel at Peradeniya in July, 1901, is 

 the subject of a report by Dr. W. Michaelsen* of Hamburg, a copy 

 of which has been courteously forwarded here from the Natur- 

 historisches Museum at Hamburg. The material consisted of earth- 

 worms belonging to twelve species, two of them being described 

 as new. The remarkable feature of this collection is that it is 

 hardly at all representative of the terricoline fauna of Ceylon 

 (which is uncommonly rich), at least nine and perhaps ten of the 

 species being foreign to Ceylon, having been introduced here 

 from various parts of the world, presumably through the mediation 

 of the Botanic Gardens. 



Thus about 80 per cent, of Dr. Uzel's collection of earthworms 

 belonged to the fugitive or peregrine element in the Ceylon fauna, 

 and this fact is recorded by Dr. Michaelsen as affording the first 

 numerical basis for estimating the influence of Botanic Gardens 

 in modifying the fauna of a country in certain directions. 



A former collection of Ceylon earthworms accumulated by Drs. 

 Fritz and Paul Sarasin was submitted to Dr. Michaelsenf in the 

 year 1887 and was found to comprise twenty-seven species, of which 

 twenty-two were certainly indigenous to Ceylon, only about 15 per 

 cent, being peregrine or introduced. The cause of this difference 

 between the Sarasin and the Uzel collections is attributed by Dr. 

 Michaelsen to the character of the localities, the former having 

 been procured from different parts of the Island, often from 

 districts remote from horticultural intercourse. The acclimati- 

 zation of useful exotic plants in Ceylon has resulted in the less 

 desirable acclimatization of exotic species of earthworms. f 



The Paper contains a table showing the further distribution of 

 the so-called peregrine species which have been carried to and 

 from such distant provinces as Madagascar, the Philippines, New 

 Zealand, and Central America. 



* Michaelsen. W., Oligochaeten von Peradeniya auf Ceylon, ein Beitrag zui- 

 Kenntnis des Einflusses Vjotanischer Garten auf die Einschlepijung perigriner 

 Thiere. S. B. Bohmisch. Ges. Prag-, No. XL., 1903, pp. 1-16. 



t Michaelsen, W.. Die Terricolenfauna Ceylons. Mt. Mus. Hamburg, Bd. XIV.. 

 1887. 



+ Cf, Michaelsen. W.. Die geographische Verbreitung der Oligochaeten. 

 Berlin. 1903. 



