797 



ON A NEW ENCHYTMID WORM (HENLEA LEFROYI, 



sp. n.) FROM INDIA— DESTRUCTIVE TO THE EGGS 



OF A LOCUST {ACRTD1UM, sp.). 



By 



FRANK E. BEDDARD, M.A., f.r.s., Prosector to the Society. 



{Received October 5, 1905.) 



{Extract from the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 1905, 



Vol. IX, p. 562.) 



Dr. S. F. Harmer, F.R.S., of King's College, Cambridge, was so good as to 

 forward to me recently a tube of small white worms for identification and 

 study. These had been sent to him from India by Mr. H. Maxwell-Lefroy, 

 Entomologist to the Government of India who discovered that they attacked 

 and destroyed the eggs of a locust belonging to the genus Acridium when the 

 ground in which those eggs were deposited is moist. 



Dr. Harmer directed my attention to the fact that they were Oligochastous 

 worms ; they prove to be a species of the family Enchytrseidaa, and were in a 

 good state of preservation for microscopical examination. The family, as is 

 well known, occurs in damp earth as well as in water ; it is not so purely 

 aquatic as are some of the families of the " Microdrili." 



The species appears to be new, and presents a certain number of characters 

 which in combination render its inclusion in any already defined genus difficult. 

 I shall, however, describe its characters before proceeding to discuss its system 

 utic position. 



The species is small, 3-4 mm. in length and, as already mentioned, white. 

 The setce are curved and of the usual Enchytraeid form ; they are, however, 

 rather few in number in each bundle, though present upon all the segments of 

 the body, with the exception of the first and apparently the twelfth (in the 

 mature worm with a clitellum). The lateral bundles possess two set*, and the 

 ventral bundles three ; very occasionally I observed three setae in a dorsal 

 bundle. This arrangement extends from end to end of the body. 



The number of segments in a large specimen is 27. 



I could detect no dorsal pores. 



The clitellum and other external characters call for no remark. 



The alimentary canal shows certain characters which assist in the placing of 

 the species. Peptonephridia are present and of very small length, though I am 

 unable to give any details concerning them. The oesophagus appears to pass 

 without any break into the intestine ; I can find no demarcation between these 

 two sections of the gut. Behind the clitellum the gut is of course much wider 

 than it is in front of that region of the body. Furthermore, I can discover no 

 'caeca or pouches of any description appended to the gut. It is a simple tube 

 without outgrowths. The septal glands of this species extend back as far as 

 the sixth segment, in which the last pair occur ; in front of this pair and in 

 ■egments iv. and v. are equally prominent pairs of septal glands. 



