1908,] W. MiCHAEi^SEN: Oligochceta of the Indian Empire and Ceylon. 133 



GEN. PRIvSTINA. 

 Pristina proboscidea, Bedd. 



F. TYPICA. 



? p. equisda, BOURNE, in Q. J. micr. Sei., N.S., xxxii, p. 352. 



P. proboscidea, BEDD., f. typica, MICHAELSEN, in Zoologica, 44, p. 359. 



P. cequiseta, BOURNE [f. typica], MICHAELSEN, in Zeitschr. wiss. Zool., Ixxxii, p. 309. 



Hab. — Bengal, Calcutta, in Spongilla crassissima and Sp. carteri ; Dr. N. 

 ANNANDATvE leg. 



Remarks. — In the course of my studies I got more and more convinced that the 

 different Pristina specimens without lengthened setae, viz., P. proboscidea, BEDD., and 

 its varieties, should be united to P. œquiseta, BOURNE, notwithstanding that their 

 setse were provided with hair-like appendices, whilst no mention of such a haracter was 

 made as regards P. œquiseta. But now I have had occasion to examine the more recent 

 species Naidium tentaculatum , PIGUET, which is really a Pristina. This species corres- 

 ponds even more exactly with the description of P. cequiseta. I therefore fell back 

 into uncertainty about the synonymy of BOURNE's P. œquiseta. I think it now 

 better to leave this question open. The specimens in hand have then to be called 

 P. proboscidea, BEDDARD, f. typica. I may add some remarks amending and com- 

 pleting the former notes about this species after examining the new and the old 

 material, among the latter the two type specimens of BEDDARD. 



The number of setae in a ventral bundle is in every case larger than that indicated 

 in BEDDARD's figure,^ even in the type specimen figured by that author. This num- 

 ber may even rise as high as 8. As GARBINI has based his species P. afflnis ^ principally 

 upon the presumably larger number of setae in a bundle (5 in P. afftnis, presumably 

 3 in P. probosc 'dea) . and as this number is variable in a certain degree, there remains 

 no reason for the separation of these two species. In the specimens examined just 

 now, among them the type specimens of BEDDARD, I found in the ventral bundles 

 of the second and third segment 4 — 6 setae, while in the bundles of the middle and . 

 hinder part of the body the number is mostly 6 or 7, rarely less, sometimes 8. The 

 ventral setae of the second segment are very much stouter than those of the middle and 

 hinder part of the body from the fourth segment backwards. Whilst a ventral seta of 

 the second segment is about 3 m thick, a corresponding seta of the fourth segment is 

 hardly i^ . thick. In intermediate positions the seta is somewhat longer, but not much. 

 The ventral setae of the third segment are intermediate between those of the second 

 segment and the very slender setae of the middle and hinder part of the body. In 

 all the ventral setae, especially in those of the second segment, the superior tooth of 

 the forked distal end is much longer than the inferior one. 



' F. E. BEDDARD, Naiden, Tubificiden und Terricolen ; in Erg. Hamburg. Magalh. Sanimelreise, 

 1896, taf., fig. 18. 



2 A. GARBINI, Una nuova specie di Pristina (P. affinis) ; in Zool. Anzeiger, bd. xxi, 1898, p. 562, 

 fig. I. 



