On some Earthworms from India and Palestine. 129 
VILI.—On some Earthworms from India and Palestine be- 
longing to the British Museum. By J. Sturewenson, M.B., 
D.Se., Lecturer in Zoology, University of Edinburgh. 
On recently reading a paper by Mr. C. R. Narayan Rao, of 
the University of Mysore, on “ The Anatomy of some new 
Species of Drawida,” in the November number of this 
Magazine (Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 9, vol. vil. No. 47, 
Nov. 1921, p. 496), I was struck by the extraordinary 
characters of the worms; a number of their peculiarities 
seemed to be altogether irreconcilable with what we know of 
the anatomy of this genus, and I felt that I could not 
possibly admit Mr. Rao’s species into the volume I am 
preparing on the Indian Oligocheta for the ‘Fauna of 
British India’ series without some corroboration of these 
anomalous features. I accordingly applied to the British 
Museum, where Mr. Rao has deposited his types, to have 
these sent to me. The Museum authorities very kindly sent 
me the worms, and I owe them my thanks for so promptly 
acceding to my request. 
I find, as I had suspected, that Mr. Rao’s accounts are in 
many respects incorrect, and especially so where they 
describe characters otherwise unknown in the genus. | 
take one of his worms—the first—as an example. 
The specific name is spelt differently in his paper (soma- 
varpatana) and on the label (somvarpatana) ; the place 
where it was taken is called Somavarpatana in the paper, 
Somvarpat on the label ; the number of segments is given 
as 80-90, but the type-specimen has 124. The male pores 
are said to be large slits; I find them to be not slit-like, 
but puckered orifices with tumid lips. Unlhke Mr. Rao, L 
was unable to distinguish externally the female and sperma- 
thecal pores; but from internal examination the spermathecal 
pores are considerably further from the middle line than is 
stated by him. ‘The gizzards are (as always in the genus) 
segmental structures, and the three present in tie type- 
specimen occupy segments xvi—xvill. Mr. Rao, however, 
apparently thinks that the gizzards in this genus may take 
up more than one segmeut, and in this species, according to 
him, the three to five gizzards occupy segments xiv.—xxi. 
Mr. Rao describes two pairs of sperm-sacs (such a 
character would at once remove the worm to another genus), 
the first pair suspended by septum 8/9 or connected with 
8/9 (an unknown position for the sacs), while the second 
pair are said to “le in somite x., having very early in de- 
velopment detached themselves from the septum 9/10.” 
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 9. Vol. ix. u 
