86 EARTHWORMS AND THEIR ALLIES [ch. 



as these are at least largely aquatic they come 

 under another set of rules and are not important in 

 the present survey of the earthworms of the world. 

 It will be thus seen that with these two last excep- 

 tions the area in question contains but six genera of 

 which all are peculiar. 



We have now completed the survey of the prin- 

 cipal land-masses of the globe. We shall conclude 

 with a reference to one of the largest islands of the 

 world, viz. New Zealand, with which will be included 

 a few outlying islands such as the Aucklands, Snares 

 Island, etc. The reason for not ignoring these 

 islands as we have ignored certain other islands of 

 large size, such as Japan, will be apparent from the 

 peculiarity of the earthworm fauna which they 

 show. From New Zealand the Moniligastridae, 

 Geoscolecidae, Lumbricidae, and, of course, the 

 Eudrilidae, are absent, save the ubiquitous Eudrilus. 

 The only family of earthworms which is here repre- 

 sented is that of the Megascolecidae. Of this family 

 the Acanthodrilinae are very well represented. We 

 have at any rate seven species of the genus Notio- 

 drilus of which the bulk are from the small adjacent 

 islands and not from the mainland. The genus 

 Rhododrilus with nine species is actually limited to 

 the New Zealand group and so is an allied genus 

 consisting of two species only, viz. Leptodrilus. This 

 latter genus is confined, so far as present information 



