168 MR. F. E. BEDDARD ON A LARGE EARTHWORM. [ Mar. 16, 
and new localities’. I am inclined to think that such information will 
support Dr. Giinther’s supposition that the worm has become 
acclimatized in this country ; Mr. Dyer tells me that it is still to be 
found in the Kew hothouses, where it has now lived since at any rate 
the beginning of 1878. k 
Prof. Moseley was able to observe in Ceylon that Bipalium 
suspends itself by the tough slime which it secretes. My specimen had 
no opportunity of showing if it could so support itself; but I noticed 
that minute offending objects could be got rid of by being entangled 
in the slime which it secreted, and which, being gradually secreted 
from a point, say, one inch behind the head forwards, was as a 
continuous sheet of mucus thrown off from the anterior end. A 
small earthworm which was placed near it, but which was not attacked, 
had the same mucous sheet thrown over it, to its obvious embar- 
rassment. 
There can be-no doubt as to the sensitiveness of Bipalium to light. 
The specimen now under notice was sent by Mr. Salvin on February 
7th, lived and was more or less active till February 26th; for this 
interval of time the town was either enveloped in fog, or surrounded 
by a darkness which needed not to be called back to our recollection. 
But on the 26th of February the sun shone, and though the 
room in which the Planarian had been placed was not illuminated 
by its rays, yet the exposure to diffuse light, which on other and 
earlier days had been harmless, was on this day fatal; the worm 
broke transversely into three pieces, and on being teuched fell into 
four. Had it been kept in darkness it is possible it might have lived 
longer. The temperature of the room varied from about 50° to 64° F. 
DESCRIPTION OF PLATE XVIII. 
Tllustrating the various forms assumed by Bipalium kewense. 
A. Extended and moving freely. B, ©. In various states of contraction. 
D-G. Some of the various forms taken by the head. H. Head and anterior 
end after contraction in spirit. I. The worm coiled and at rest. 
All the figures are of the natural size. 
4, Note on the Structure of a large Species of Earthworm 
from New Caledonia. By Frank E: Bepparp, M.A., 
F.R.S.E., Prosector to the Society. 
[Received March 15, 1886.] 
(Plate XIX.) 
Among a number of Earthworms forwarded to me from New 
Caledonia, through the kindness of Mr. E. L. Layard, F.Z.S., H.B.M. 
Consul at Noumea, were six specimens of a large worm several of 
which measured some 28 inches in length. All these specimens are 
referable to the same species, which belongs to the genus Acantho- 
1 Specimens have been found in the Zoological Society’s Gardens, which 
have, and in gardens at Liverpool which have not had direct relations with Kew. 
