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A NEW YORKSHIRE EARTHWORM. 
Rev. HILDERIC FRIEND, F.L.S., 
Idle, Bradford; Author of ‘ Flowers and Flower Lore,’ etc. 
WE are constantly finding the old saying confirmed, that in natural 
history the largest number of species occur in the district which is 
most carefully worked. This is true of earthworms. One by one 
the mysteries surrounding this greatly-neglected group of animals are 
being penetrated, the veil is being lifted, and we are getting more 
accurate ideas respecting the specific differences, the distribution, 
and the uses of worms. I have recently been fortunate enough to 
find more than one species new to Yorkshire, but for the present 
I shall be content to describe the one which I have most carefully 
studied. So little is known about many of the worms imperfectly 
described by the earlier authors, that I shall not now discuss the 
synonymy of this species, but give it the name applied to it by the 
author, who alone has fully and accurately described it (A//olobophora 
Profuga Rosa). To no one are we more deeply indebted than to 
Dr. D. Rosa, of Turin, for our present knowledge of the European 
Lumbrici. His lucid descriptions, shrewd discernment of points of 
value, generous recognition of the work of others, and indefatigable 
Industry, are models which we could wish every helminthologist 
would imitate. In 1884 this veteran worm-hunter published a 
booklet entitled Z Lumbricidi del Piemonte, in which he described 
four species of Lumbricus, and a dozen species of AWolobophora. 
_ Among them we find the worm which forms the subject of this 
paper. Dr. Rosa is the only writer whose works I have studied who 
notices the differences in point of size, length, and number of 
segments between worms collected in the South of Europe and those 
found in more northerly latitudes. I had already noted the fact that 
in some instances worms become smaller as we go southwards—a 
fact which will account for the differences between certain species of 
English worms and their Italian representatives. With us A. profuga 
Rosa, is 60 or 70 mm. when of medium size, but sometimes reaches 
fully twice that length, and is then about 80 mm. in alcohol, with a 
diameter of 5 to 8mm. The number of segments is about 120-150. 
The worm is cylindrical, having much the appearance of the Turgid 
Worm (A. turgida Eisen), but the hinder part is more angular in 
Outline, owing to the disposition of the sete. The colour is ashy- 
grey, clayey, or fleshy-brown, with clay-coloured girdle. Owing to 
the greater transparency of the integument, the head appears rosy or 
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