MONILIGASTER GRANDIS, A. G. B. 307 
On Moniligaster grandis, A.G.B., from the 
Nilgiris, 8. India; together with Descriptions 
of other Species of the Genus Moniligaster. 
By 
Alfred Gibbs Bourne, D.Sc.Lond., 
Professor of Biology in the Presidency College, Madras. 
With Plates 22—28. 
EXTERNAL CHARACTERS. 
Colour and Size.—The general appearance, colour, and 
size may be judged from figs. 1 and 2. Anaverage-sized worm 
which I measured was 590 mm. long when living and at rest, 
270 mm. when fully contracted, and 1080 mm. when stretched 
out after having been (purposely) badly preserved. 
The most striking feature in the living worm is the great 
activity of the twelve or fourteen most anterior somites as 
compared with the extreme sluggishness of the greater portion 
of the body. When removed from the ground the animal 
seems to have very little control over all the hinder portion of 
its body. The body-wall is here very thin and weak, and often 
becomes ruptured in specimens which are kept in captivity. 
When this happens the gut instantly bulges out at the point of 
rupture.! 
Great differences exist among earthworms with regard to what happens 
when the body-wall is injured. Some worms, like M. grandis, will live on 
for a long time with a portion of the gut bulging out, while others, e. g. 
Perionyx saltans, will, on receiving the slightest injury to the body-wall, 
breek at once into two pieces. The body-wall behaves in some cases as though 
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