1900.] ON THE EARTHWORMS OF THE GENUS AMYNTAS. 609 



[I have identified the single specimen with Sundevall's 

 Chloropeta icterina, a species about which very little is known. 

 It differs from 0. natalensis in its more slender bill and greener 

 plumage, in which the head is like the back. It is much smaller 

 than C. masaica, and has not the dusky-brown head of the latter. 

 — E. B. S.] 



56. Terpsiphone ceistata. 



Terpsiphone cristata (Gm.) : Sharpe, Ibis, 1892, p. 304; Shelley, 

 B. Africa, i. p. 99 (1896). 



No. 8. c? ad. Nairobi, July 12, 1899. Bill and eyelids cobalt- 

 blue ; feet leaden blue. 



Somewhat common, and found frequenting the forest shambas 

 near Nairobi. 



4. A Revision of the Earthworms of the Genus Amyntas 

 {Perichceta) . By Frank E. Beddard, M.A., F.R.S., &c. 



[Eeceived May 9, 1900.] 



There can be no doubt that this " difficult and extensive genus " 

 urgently requires revision. There has been no comprehensive 

 essay upon the whole series of species comprised in the genus 

 (which I will attempt to define presently) save in my ' Monograph 

 of the Oligochreta.' Since the appearance of that work a very 

 large number of new species have been described, or at least a large 

 number of new names given to members of this genus. In view of 

 recent investigations, the 79 species described in my Monograph 

 should probably be reduced to not more than 56. Some 50 new 

 species may now be added. 



I have lately gone through my very large collection of Perichceta — 

 or Amyntas as it should unfortunately be called ' ; and in doing so 

 have noted a number of small facts of systematic, rather than of 

 anatomical, interest which are new. As these concern a considerable 

 number of species and refer to several hundreds of individuals, I 

 was compelled to make for my own use a list of the species of the 

 genus as I defined them. It has appeared to me that the best 

 way of recording these new facts would be in the shape of a 

 revision of the entire genus : this will doubtless be criticised ; but I 

 believe that it will at least serve as a means of determining a 

 supposed new form more easily than can be done at present with 

 the scattered literature. 



1 Michaelsen ("Terricolen vonverschiedenenGebieten derErde," Jabrb.Hamb. 

 wias. Anst. xvi.) has pointed out that the name Perichceta, having been used for 

 a genus of Diptera, must be dropped, and that the name Amyntas, formerly 

 dropped on account of its being merely a synonym of Perichceta, must be 

 reinstated. Dr. Horst (Zool. Anz. 1900) traverses this conclusion, and would 

 retain Perichceta for the worm, since it is Dot a valid dipteran genus. 



It seems to me impossible to avoid the conclusion that a name once used 

 cannot be used again for another genus. 



