180 BEDDARD. 



Pheretima decipiens sp. nov. 



The species of Pheretima which I describe here under the above 

 name is not, I am compelled to admit, to be certainly regarded 

 as a new species. Nevertheless, after a careful consideration of 

 the literature, I feel quite unable to identify it positively with 

 any other species. The only alternative, therefore, is to give 

 it a new name. The identification of the members of this genus 

 is becoming a very difficult task. This is largely due to the 

 omission in some earlier records of characters now, but not then, 

 known to be of considerable importance in the discrimination of 

 species, and also to the fact that many species have been founded 

 upon one individual, or at least upon the dissection of but one 

 individual. That there are anatomical variations, a study of the 

 present and of other species fully demonstrates. Pheretima 

 deciipiens belongs to that group of species of the genus which 

 is characterized by the following assemblage of important and 

 diagnostic characters : There are no setae upon the clitellum 

 which occupies the whole of segments XIV — XVI ; there are no 

 traces of genital papilla; the male pores are large and rather 

 far apart, being separated by some 8 setae; the spermiducal 

 glands are relatively small, are contained within the XVIIIth 

 segment, and open to the exterior by means of a large bursa 

 copulatrix; caeca are present; spermathecae, more than 1 pair. 

 I make a point of leaving out the more exact characterization 

 of the spermathecse in this preliminary diagnosis, since I find 

 them to vary in the species which is at present under discussion. 



But with this limitation, there are only the following species, 

 besides the present, which agree in the characters enumerated 

 above. They are P. jjhilippina Rosa,^ P. piira Rosa,' and an 

 assemblage of "species" which I have dealt with in my revision ^ 

 of this genus under the name of "Amyntas cingulatus." I have 

 included in the latter assemblage species which have been 

 described as P. cingulata Vaillant (in part) , P. darnleiensis 

 Fletcher, P. vaillanti Beddard, P. martensi Michaelsen, P. indica 

 Horst, P. eoa Rosa, P. madelinx Benham, P. padasensis var. 

 lokonensis Michaelsen, and P. belli Rosa. Michaelsen, on the 

 other hand, who reviewed the genus at about the same time 

 as myself, arranges these 9 "species" into the following: P. 

 martensi (including P. eoa), P. vaillanti, P. darnleiensis, P. 

 belli, P. padasensis var. lokonensis, P. padasensis var. made- 



^ Ann. k. k. Nat. Hofmus. (1891), 6, 397. 

 'Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. (1898), II, 7, 285. 

 ^Proc. Zool. Soc. London (1900), 615. 



