298 FRIEND: A NEW SPECIES OF LUMBRICUS. 
each, which have been received from different parts of the kingdom, 
and find that they are typical in character, and widely distributed. 
The Common Earthworm (Z. ¢errestris Linn.), though formerly 
very vaguely defined, and constantly confused with a number of 
other species, especially the Long Worm (4. /onga Ude), is now 
easily recognised by the constancy of its girdle and band. It is the 
largest of our native terrestrial annelids, often reaching a length of six 
or eight inches, when living undisturbed in rich vegetable mould. It 
is of a warm brown colour, usually iridescent on the back and flesh- 
coloured beneath. On the fifteenth segment it carries pale coloured 
papillz, on which are situated the male pores. These papille are 
a good starting-point when the segments have to be counted back- 
wards to ascertain the position of the girdle. I have examined — 
many hundreds of specimens at all seasons of the year, and have, 
without a single exception, found the girdle in the mature worm 
covering the 32nd to the 37th segments, the four innermost of which 
have the tubercula pubertatis on the ventral surface. The sete are 
arranged on the under-side of the body in four double rows, whereas 
in the tree-worms they form eight single rows nearly equi-distant all 
over the body. When irritated, the worm exudes a clear, colourless 
se but we never find a liquid substance poured from the dorsal 
pores. In the case of the Tree Worm, and several species of 
Allolobophora, this is the case, while a few instances occur in which 
a smell of garlic, or some other vegetable, is emitted. os 
_ The Ruddy Worm (Z. rubescens Friend) is identical in point of — 
size and colour with the new species described above. It was first 
discovered by me in Yorkshire a couple of years ago, and described 
in detail in the Linnean Society’ s Journal, ett vol. xxiv, p. 305 
et seq. The Irish specimens which I have examined in no way ie 
_ differ from the type, which is about four iach in length, and has 
an average number of 120 segments. It has probably been mis- 
taken by earlier investigators for one or other of the worms which = 
it closely resembles, though Savigny may have intended this species 
when he wrote his brief account of Z. festious. The curious point — 
about the matter is that no one on the Continent has ever found 
a worm answering to the description of Savigny, though he wrote — e 
more than half a century ago. In the Ruddy Worm we have co 
ones mee again conspicuously situated on — while in thetwo 
ether The girdle extends ae 5 
from the - 34th to the goth segment, pe as usual, the band stretches _ - 
a —— the four i innermost. ‘The discovery of the new worm bridges ~ 
the: Common Earthworm: and the ~ : 
