432 Excerpta Zoologica : — Vegetation upon Living Animals. 



Ch^topodes. 



Several additions have been made to the history of the CJkb- 

 topodes, Burm. {Terricolce, Cuv.). Henle described several 

 years ago a new genus alHed to Lumbricus, to which he ap- 

 phed the name of Enchytracus ; it occurs near Berhn in moist 

 ground, and differs from Lumbricus by the white colour of the 

 skin, the pale colour of the blood, and by its much smaller size. 



In a treatise lately published by Hoffmeister (De Vermibus 

 quibusdam ad genus Lumbricorum pertinentibus, diss, inaug. 

 cum tab. 2. Berol. 1842), we are made acquainted with another 

 new genus, Scenuris : the animal lives at the bottom of small 

 ditches near Berlin, where it occurs buried in the mud with the 

 posterior extremity of the body, while the front portion pro- 

 jects freely and floats about in the water. From this aquatic 

 mode of life it approaches to the genus Tubifex, Lam., from 

 which however it decidedly differs by its far greater size, four 

 series of fasciculi [Tubifex has only two), and by the absence 

 of the pecuharity of forming tubes in the mud. The following 

 are the generic characters : — 



Scenuris. Corpus teres, distincte annulatum annulis raris, quadrifa- 

 riam teniis ad senis pedicellis ineequalibus aculeatum, numerus an- 

 nulorum 190 — 160. Diaphragmata arcta ; color sanguinis ruberri- 

 mus. Ventriculus musculosus nuUus. 



S. variegata. Labro superiore dilatato, antice acuminate. Long. 3'". 



Lumbricus V arieg at us oiO. Mueller is probably synonymous 

 M'ith this species. A careful anatomical dissection indicated 

 essential diffei'cnces from the allied genera. 



In the same memoir we further find observations on the 

 genus Lumbricus itself: while all the older zoologists are only 

 acquainted with a single species, Lumbricus terrestris, Savigny 

 (Descript. de FEgypte) has made twenty new species from that 

 one ; and Duges has brought the number up to thirty-five. 



Hoffmeister, who examined the earthworms of the neigh- 

 bourhood of Berlin, considers that he is able to distinguish 

 Avith certainty three species which are characterized by ex- 

 ternal characters, and also by their habit. One of these spe- 

 cies agrees with the L. anatomicus, Dug. ; the other two are 

 new, L. agricola and L. olidus. 



C. Vogt has recently described another new genus, which 

 is more allied to the Naiads (Miiller's Archiv, 1841, p. 36), 

 under the name Matzia heterodactyla. The long body of the 

 animal is indistinctly divided into rings ; each of the rings has 

 on the ventral side two warts, each of which is furnished with 

 from two to ten bristles. The animal is, from its parasitic habit, 

 very remarkable, living as it does in the mantle-cavity of An- 

 cijlus fluviatilis; the length of the animal amounts at the 



