A. KEW SPECIES OP LITMBEICITS. 305 



II. On a new Species op Litmbeicus. 



During the summer of 1890 I collected a large series of 

 Earthworms, with the intention of drawing up a complete cata- 

 logue of all the species to be found in Yorkshire, where I was 

 residing. The material thus obtained was passed under rapid 

 review, and then put aside till I should be able to command 

 sufficient leisure for a more detailed examination. 



Among the specimens taken in the immediate neighbourhood 

 of my residence I observed some worms which I was unable to 

 correlate with any one of the species known as British, and as I 

 extended my investigations it became more and more apparent 

 that I had alighted on a species which was not only new to 

 Britain, but one which was also unknown to science. 



Having recently had occasion to devote some time to the more 

 thorough and exhaustive examination of our worm-fauna, and 

 having at the same time discovered my new species in several 

 parts of the country, I purpose in this paper, not only submitting 

 a detailed account of the worm in question, but showing how we 

 stand at present in relation to the genus as a whole. For some 

 years past I have been working persistently at the family Lum- 

 bricidae, to which all our indigenous earthworms belong, and 

 now feel that I am in a position to deal with the different genera 

 in a fuller manner than has been possible with any previous 

 writer on British earthworms. 



It seems desirable in the first place to give a diagnosis of the 

 external characters of the species, to which, for reasons to be 

 assigned hereafter, I have given the name ruhescens. Internally, 

 so far as my examination has proceeded, there is no new or 

 abnormal feature to record, the worm answering in all respects 

 to the typical Lumhricus. In the matter of terminology I shall 

 follow Eisen, who was the first to distinguish Lumhricus from 

 AllolobopJiora. 



LUMBEICUS EITBESCElSrS, Sp. UOV. 



Corpus elongatum aut crassum, antice cylindricum, attenuatum, 

 postice depressum. 



Lohus cephalicus (sive prostomium) magnus, antice rotun- 

 datus, supra in medio sulco transverse prseditus ; postice 

 segmentum buccale (id est peristomium) in duas partes 

 dividens ; infra pallidus, sulco longitudinal! furcate. 



Tuhercula ventralia plerumque conspicua in segmento 15. 



