612 ME. F. E. BEDDARD ON TIIE [May 22, 



c7icetiis and in a few other species. Here, again, there are not data 

 to enable the character to be made very wide use of. 



In the following pages I have made use of some or all of the 

 characters formulated in the two lists just given. I have also 

 directed attention to size, because it is inconvenient to describe a 

 species w ithout giving some notion of its dimensions. As a matter 

 of fact, size seems to be of practically no importance in the dis- 

 crimination of species. Neither has colour any practical importance. 

 For, in the first place, the colours of earthworms do not as a rule 

 show easily describable variations from species to species ; in the 

 second place, there is no doubt that actual variations do occur from 

 individual to individual ; and, finally, the bulk of the existing 

 species are known from spirit -preserved specimens, from which in 

 many cases all, and in others some, of the colour-markings have 

 been lost. 



Nor does it seem to be very profitable to dwell strongly upon 

 the number of setae in each segment ; at any rate the value of this 

 character has been distinctly exaggerated. The form and extent 

 of the buccal lobe shows only such slight differences from species 

 to species, if any at all, that I have ignored it. 



In the following survey of the species I have arranged them in 

 a number of groups for purposes of easier reference. It should 

 be noted that in all the descriptions — unless any remark be made — 

 the following characters are to be added : — Clitellum occupying 

 segments xiv.-xvi. Male pores on xviii. Oviducal pore on xiv. 

 Dorsal pores commencing about xi./xii. Gizzard in viii. Caeca 

 present in xxvi. Last heart in xiii. Testes in x., si. Ovaries in 

 xiii. Sperm-sacs in xi., xii. 



Genus AMYNTAS, Kinberg. 



Syn. Rhodope, Nitocris, Pheretima, Kinberg. Perichceta, Schmarda. 

 Megascolex, Baird. 



Large (4 feet) to small (1 inch) earthworms. Segments of 

 body comparatively few, often corresponding with length in 

 millimetres. Prostomium never continued by grooves to end of 

 the first segment of the body. Setae (sometimes ornamented with 

 faint ridges) forming a continuous circle, occasionally interrupted 

 in the ventral and dorsal mid-line, or in either the dorsal or 

 ventral mid-line. Setae vary in number from about 20 to 

 over 100 on a segment; sometimes stronger on the anterior 

 segments, and at times two or three longer on each side of ventral 

 median line. The setae are sometimes more crowded ventrally 

 or laterally than dorsally. Clitellum as a rule occupying segments 

 xiv.-xvi., often beginning in the middle of the first and ending at 

 the middle of the last of these segments ; rarely extending beyond 

 the xvith. Clitellum developed all round the body, with or without 

 setae. Only in A. Jwulleti are the clitellar setae different from those 

 on other segments. Dorsal pores as a rule not commencing before 

 segments xi./xii., always present. Male pores on xviii. Oviduca 



