206 ME. F. E. BEDBAED ON EABTHWORMS [June 4, 



It must be admitted that the principal reason for separating 

 this species from B.joJinsfoni is the chai'acter of the penial setae. 

 It is, however, a smaller species, with a different coloration. As 

 to the clitellum, it is possible that other specimens would show an 

 extension equal to that of B. jolinstoni. 



(4) Benhamia austeni, n. sp. 



I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. Austen for kindly col- 

 lecting for me a considerable number of specimens of a species of 

 Benhamia, which I believe to be new. The worm.s were collected 

 about forty miles from Blantyre in Nyassa-land. 



The species is not a large one, but I cannot give accurate 

 measurements of length as the worms were rather softened, I 

 should say that a length of 150 mm. by a diameter of 5 mm. was 

 a fair statement of their dimensions. 



The seke have the usual strictly paired and ventral arrangement. 

 Those of the three or four anterior segments are smaller than those 

 which follow ; they gradually increase in size, and the larger ones 

 show a distinct ornamentation in the form of ridges which produce 

 a scale-like appearence — a form of ornamentation found in other 

 species of the genus. On segments vi.-ix. or so the set« are 

 especially enlarged ; it will be noted that these segments are in 

 the neighbourhood of the spermathecal pores, and the strong pairs 

 of setae on the segments between which those pouches open are 

 particulai'ly noteworthy. It is only the ventral setse which are 

 thus specially enlarged. Now it will be remembered that in 

 Benhamia liheriensis ^ there is a similar enlargement of the ventral 

 pair of setae of segment vii. But in this species the setae when 

 extracted are seen to be quite as much modified as are the genital 

 setae of segments xvii. & xix. in the same and other species of 

 Benhamia. This is not the case with Benhamia austeni ; but the 

 enlargement and increase of the ornamentation upon the setae is a 

 step in that direction. The circumstances are exactly paralleled 

 by the slightly modified setae in the neighbourhood of the male 

 pores in certain species of Perionyx^, vi'hich in the allied genus 

 Megascolex become the much more modified penial setae. 



There are no ventral setae upon segment xviii. 



The dorsal jiores commence between segments v./vi. They 

 appear to go on without intermission to the end of the body. No 

 such break as I have described in Benhamia moorei seems to exist. 



The oviducal pores are paired. Each pore lies on the fourteenth 

 segment to the inside of, and quite in line with, the ventralmost 

 seta ; it looks, on an inspection by a lens, precisely like a third 

 seta in this position, by reason of its dark appearance. 



It is important to note the position of the oviducal pores, which 

 vary in the genus, and would appear to offer characters of specific 



^ Horst, " Descriptions of Earthworms : IX. On two new Henhamia-speciefi 

 from Libei'ia." Notes Leyd. Mus. xvii. p. 21. 



- Beddard, "On some new Species of Earthworms from various Parts of the 

 World." P. Z, S. 1892, p, 688. 



