The Philippine Journal of Science. 



D. General Biology, Ethnology and Anthropology. 



Vol. VII, No. 3, June, 1912. 



THE OLIGOCH^TA TERRICOL^E OF THE PHILIPPINES. 

 PART I, THE GENUS PHERETIMA. 



By Frank E. Beddaed. 



{London, England.) 



The Director of the Bureau of Science of the Government of 

 the Philippine Islands has been so good as to forward to me a 

 number of bottles and tubes containing a large series of earth- 

 worms, collected in the Philippine Islands and under his direc- 

 tion, with a request that I would examine and report upon them. 

 I am very grateful to the Director for this opportunity. I desire 

 also to offer my thanks to the gentleman, Mr. R. C. McGregor, 

 assistant in the Bureau of Science, who collected the specimens 

 upon which I here report, which proved to be in excellent condi- 

 tion for investigation. 



The collection forwarded to me contains a considerable number 

 of new species of Pheretima upon which I write in the present 

 communication. However, the account which I give does not deal 

 with all of the species of that genus contained in the collection. 

 There were in addition to those described in the following pages 

 several examples of a species which I refer with some doubt to 

 P. montana, and a single, large, not fully mature specimen which 

 I was unable to place with accuracy. I propose to defer the con- 

 sideration of these two species until I receive more specimens. 



All of the new species described in the present paper are based 

 upon specimens from the Island of Luzon. 



Although the genus Pheretima forms the bulk of this collection, 

 there are also specimens, or at least 1 example, of a species of 

 Pleionog aster, and some small worms belonging to the genus 

 Benhamia. I intend, in the present communication, to concern 

 myself only with the genus Pheretima, leaving the other genera 

 to be dealt with in successive reports, in the course of which I 

 propose to deal, also, with the species already described as natives 

 of the Philippine Islands. There will thus result, I hope, a fairly 

 complete account of the earthworm fauna of this part of the 

 world. 



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