NOTES ON ACANTHODRILOID EARTHWORMS. 289 
Notes on Two Acanthodriloid Earthworms from 
New Zealand. 
By 
W,. Blaxland Benham, D.Sc.Lond., 
Aldrichian Demonstrator of Anatomy in the University of Oxford. 
With Plates XV and XVI. 
In the summer of last year (1890) I received, through the 
kindness of Professor Jeffrey Bell, of the British Museum, some 
earthworms for identification. ‘They were collected by Mr. 
Vaughan Jennings in New Zealand, at Manngatua, south of 
Dunedin, who generously allowed me to retain them for further 
examination. I regret that so much delay has occurred in 
preparing my report for publication, for I almost completed 
my observations on them during last summer vacation, but 
continuous work since September last prevented me putting 
certain finishing touches to the descriptions and figures till 
August of the present year (1891). 
I found in the bottle three worms and some fragments. One 
of these worms turns out to be Beddard’s Neodrilus mono- 
cystis; the other two belong to a new genus. 
Neodrilus monocystis, Beddard. 
A single specimen! of a worm, found by Mr. Beddard amongst 
species of Acanthodrilus from New Zealand, differed from 
‘ It is a curious thing that in so many cases only one specimen of a worm 
is found, which serves as a type of a new genus; and it has occurred to me, 
sometimes, that some of these may be hybrids or abnormalities, which from 
some weakness have failed to reach their burrows, just as we find the common 
earthworm on the surface of the ground after rains, &c., in a weakly or dying 
condition. 
