295 
A NEW SPECIES OF LUMBRICUS. 
Rev. HILDERIC FRIEND, F.L.S., 
Author of ‘Flowers and Flower-Lore, Cockermouth, 
On the roth June, last year, I received a series of earthworms from 
characters appeared to me to be striking. It was collected in 
Dublin, and I was puzzled at the time to decide whether it was 
simply an abnormal form of the common earthworm (Lumbricus 
terrestris L..), or whether it belonged to a distinct species. I there- 
fore made a note of its peculiarities, and awaited an opportunity for 
coming to a decision on sufficient evidence. In due course the much 
wished for data were at hand, for on November 16th I received from 
Mr. Redding, L.R.C. S., a second specimen, taken at Glasnevin, 
exactly corresponding in every detail to the one already observed. 
Careful and repeated examination of these specimens, both internally 
and externally, and detailed comparison with the type of the genus, 
have enabled me to decide that we have here an earthworm which is 
hew to Great Britain, and, at the same time, new to science 
as well. 
may, in the first place, give a plain account of the worm in 
English, following it with a brief diagnosis, corresponding with ae 
Supplied of the Ruddy beacon (Lumbricus rubescens Friend), as 
described by me last year in a communication to the Linnean 
Society onrtiat: ie Linn. ae Zoology, Vol. xxiv, p. 305). _ 
_ The adult worm is 4 inches or ro cm. in length when well — 
preserved in alcohol. It is 8 mm. across the girdle and sexual 
Organs, while the tail is spathulate or flattened so as to measure nearly 
a centimetre in diameter. In colour it is ruddy brown, but lighter — 
. : than the common earthworm usually is, though in size and other | 
particulars it closely resembles that species (Z. terrestris L.), which 
We may regard as the type of the genus. The lip or prostomium 
: forms with the peristomium or first ring, a perfect mortise and tenon, 
__ while the under side of the lip is marked by a forked groove. This 
is undoubtedly of service to those species which possess it, as it 
enables the worm to grasp its food more firmly than it could other- 
wise do. The under surface of the peristomium is deeply ribbed or 
- indented. On the fifteenth segment we find a pair of prominent 
aa papillze on which the male pores are situated. In front of these 
owing reine igh eee oe pnb hea: en c . 2 
