STUDIES ON EARTHWORMS. 267 
PARED (ik 
Descriptions oF New or Litrte-KNnown EartuHworms. 
I. Microcheta Rappi, Beddard (Lumbricus micro- 
chetus, Rapp). 
Intropuction.—Last year Prof. Ray Lankester received 
from Dr. George Romanes, F.R.S., two very large Earthworms 
which had been sent to him from South Africa, by Dr. J. W. 
Stroud, of Port Elizabeth, Algoa Bay. He kindly placed them 
in my hands for dissection. They were living when they arrived, 
so that I was able to make some observations in the fresh state. 
They were then placed in chromic acid, and afterwards in 30 per 
cent. spirit, being ultimately preserved for sections in strong 
spirit. The examination of their external characters proved 
them to belong to a species which had been described by Mr. 
Beddard in the autumn, in a paper read before the Zoological 
Society. 
a. ExternaL Anatomy.—The worms measured about three 
feet six inches in length, and averaged about three quarters of 
an inch in width, though wider anteriorly. A life-sized, and 
naturally-coloured drawing was made by Miss Stone. The 
surface of the body is in colour, a beautiful iridescent, 
greenish brown dorsally and laterally, whilst ventrally it is 
of a pink tint. The clitellum is deep green, with a bright 
pink orange under-surface. The anterior and posterior extre- 
mities are very obtuse, whilst the body is nearly cylindrical, 
not being much flattened. 
The prostomium is a very small lobe and not embedded in 
the first or buccal somite. 
The somites themselves are not by any means as distinct 
as in Lumbricus, but each consists of a number of annuli, so that, 
from the exterior it is difficult to limit the anterior somites. 
The number of annuli to a somite in this region varies ; but in 
the clitellum there are three annuli to a somite, and posteriorly 
