REVIEW. 1145 



Few will agree with the author's account of the thorax of the mosquito. 

 He regards the scutellum as representing the whole of the mesonotum and 

 all anterior to it "more than three-quarters of the whole " thoracic terga 

 as the pronotum. 



On page 180 we read " In a European species of cockroach the males are 

 wingless " — an obvious slip of the pen for females. But why European ? 

 Is not S. orientalis all too common in India ? 



One or two sentences might perhaps he better worded, for example 

 page IX — " Science is our united experience of material things as expressed 

 in books." On page 2, " Bacteria which have emerged from minute round 

 bodies called spores, just as a chicken emerges from its egg." 



These are small faults easily rectified in future editions. The book as a 

 whole will be a great assistance to both teacher and student. 



A. POWELL. 



INDIAN EARTHWORMS AND THEIR DISTRIBUTION. 



W. Michaelsen. " The Oligochseta of India, Nepal, Ceylon, Burma and 

 the Andaman Isles, " Mem. Ind. Mm., vol. i, pp. 101-253 (1909), and " Die 

 Oligochatenfauna der vorderindisch-ceylonischen Region, " Abhandl. 

 Naturwissen. Verein, in Hamburg, Band xix, Heft 5, pp. 1-107 (1910). 



In the 'two papers to which a reference is given Dr. W. Michaelsen, of 

 the Hamburg Natural History Museum, the author of the admirable volume 

 on the Oligochseta in " Das Tierreich," discusses the taxonomy and distri- 

 bution of the earthworms of India and Ceylon and of their allies, the minute 

 aquatic species of the families Aeolosomatidse, Naididse and Tubificidse, 

 his investigations being based mainly on the collections preserved in the 

 Indian Museum. In his last paper he recognizes 177 species of Oligo- 

 chseta as occurring in India (including Nepal, Burma and the Andamans) 

 and Ceylon. Of these, 24 species belong to the aquatic families, 1 species 

 (Henlea lefrot/i, Beddard) is parasitic in habits, and 152 are true earthworms. 

 The aquatic Oligochseta exhibit many interesting features as regards 

 habits and structure," but with few exceptions they have an extremely 

 wide distribution, the same species often occurring in all geographical 

 regions. They are therefore of less geographical interest than the true 

 earthworms. 



Dr. Michaelsen divides the earthworms, considering them from a geo- 

 graphical point of view, into two categories, "endemic " and " peregrine " 

 species, the latter being species which accompany man in his wanderings 

 and are introduced with garden plants and the like into the country sur- 



* As regards the Indian species see Stephenson's papers (.Mem. Ind. Mus., Vol. i. 

 pp. 255-281 : Eec. Ind. Mils., vol. i, pp. 133 and 233 (1907) : vol. ii, p. 39 (1908) : 

 vol iii, p 105 (1909) ; vol. v, pp. 59, 233 and 241 (1910). 



