ii8 Memoirs of the Indian Museum. [Vot,. I, 



original home of any Moniligastrid. As is seen in the above Hst, some species of 

 Drawida occur in the more northerly parts of India. But even these species, extend- 

 ing only a moderately long distance from the proper home of Drawida, seem to 

 be peregrine. Drawida willsi (peregrine in a large degree, if really identical with 

 D. japonica) occurs at the same time in the Deccan and in the Central Provinces. 

 D. nepalensis, MICHL-SN., on the other hand, is probably identical with D. 

 uniqua (BOURNE) from South India. South India and Ceylon, then, are the 

 proper home of the endemic species of Drawida. Even if D. nepalensis should 

 prove to be endemic in the northern part of India, it could only be regarded 

 as an outpost of southern origin and probably of a very recent geological 

 date. Never has a Drawida been found in the large district of Bengal, now so well 

 explored . The proper dominion of Drawida and Moniligaster , then, is widely separated 

 by the broad Bay of Bengal from the dominion of their ancestor Desmogaster. It is at 

 least improbable that the genus Drawida , while being derived from Desmogaster and on the 

 way to occupying its recent dominion, took the way which in recent times is the only 

 passable one, w^., that across the districts around the Bay of Bengal, across Bengal and 

 the north-eastern parts of India. Drawida, so well represented in South India, would have 

 left distinct traces of its once having lived in these districts. There appears no reason 

 why it should have been extirpated here, for instance in Bengal, this district not 

 being the dominion of one of those vigorous phyletically younger foriris, like Pheretima 

 or the Lumhricidœ , which are extirpating nearly all feebler forms that occur in their 

 proper dominions. It is probable that there was in former geological periods another 

 way from the dominion of Desmogaster {i.e., from Burma, the Malayan 

 Peninsula and Sumatra) to that of Drawida , namely via Ceylon and 

 South India. This way now is covered by the Bay of Bengal or other parts of the 

 northern Indian Ocean. There are other facts, moreover, which favour the hypothesis 

 of a quite different configuration of land and sea in this part of the world in former 

 geological periods. 



Family Megascoleddae. — The pedigree of this large family resembles a much 

 branched tree. Two of the main branches of this tree are represented by endemic 

 species in the region in question. The first of these is identical with the sub-family 

 M egascolecincB , the different parts of the second are placed in two different sub- 

 families, viz., the OctochœtincB and Trigastrince. All these sub-families are derived 

 from the " acanthodriline primordial form" {" acanthodriline Ur-form"), which 

 doubtless in its main characters was in accord with the recent genus Eodrilus [Notio- 

 drilus, part., of former years]. 



The sub-family Megascolecince is derived from Eodrilus by the intermediate genus 

 Diplotrema from Australia, and Australia must be regarded as the headquarters of 

 the phyletically older genera of this sub-family. These older genera spread from the 

 centre {i.e., from Australia) in a centrifugal manner, but to a different extent. Only 

 a few very small side-branches are totally restricted to Australia {viz., the genera 

 Fletcherodrilus, Digaster, Perissogaster and Didymogaster , the occurrence of the latter 

 in New Zealand being brought about by a somewhat peregrine species). All the larger 



