194 Memoirs of the Indian Museum. [Vol. VII, 



(vii) One from the Darjiling District in the Eastern Himalayas, by Drs. Annan- 

 dale and Gravely in October, 1917. 



(viii) A few specimens from Shillong in Assam, collected by Dr. Annandale in 

 April, 1918. 

 (ix) A few specimens sent at various times from Lucknow by Mr. G. S. Thapar. 



The collections, including the types of new species, are now in the possession of 

 the Indian Museum, with the exception of a few tubes which I am retaining for histo- 

 logical work in the future. 



A considerable number of the species encountered are new, as was to be expected 

 from the fact that the territory explored was mostly new or little worked. I have 

 also met with a number of species previously described by other workers from single 

 or ill-preserved specimens, and have sometimes been able to improve our knowledge 

 of them. It can scarcely be said however that the results of the present investiga- 

 tion include anything of the first order of importance, — it is now too late to expect 

 this. There are notable additions to the genera Perionyx, Octochaetus, and Eudicho- 

 gaster. Perionyx must now be held to have a definite territory of its own in West- 

 ern India, in addition to its head-quarters in the E. Himalayas ; Octochaetus is to be 

 recognized as an endemic and dominant genus in West and Central India ; the limits 

 of the Eudichogaster territory however remain where they were established by 

 Michaelsen in 1909 (3). Eudichogaster is the characteristic earthworm of Central 

 India. New species of Perionyx will still be brought from the Himalayas ; new 

 species of Megascolex from the South, and of Eudichogaster from Central India ; but 

 the main features of the Indian earthworm fauna are now fairly well defined. 



Perionyx sansibaricus turns out to be one of the common earthworms of West- 

 ern India, whence doubtless it was transferred to Zanzibar, where it was first found. 



The new Hoplochaetella raises some interesting points of morphology and phylo- 

 geny, and helps to show, — -what is illustrated by other parts of the paper also, and 

 indeed, I suppose, by the experience of systematists in general, — that the smaller our 

 material, the more precise and satisfactory is our systematic work. Here as else- 

 where increase of knowledge brings sorrow and trouble, and where before we walked 

 confidently as in the daylight, we hesitate and feel befogged. 



I have previously had several opportunities, — more, perhaps, than have fallen to 

 the lot of other workers, — of examining the curious gilled Branchiura sowerbyi, and 

 have been interested in meeting it once again, this time from Lucknow. Though 

 several workers (Beddard, Michaelsen, and myself) had previously sectioned the 

 animal, the possibility of the protrusion of the ectal portion of the atrium as a rela- 

 tively long penis was not suspected until recently. Several of the specimens from 

 Lucknow had both penes protruded and visible on the surface. 



A new Megascolides from the Western Ghats, and a previously imperfectly 

 known Glyphidrilus now found at Lucknow, are interesting in view of the rarity of 

 these genera in India. A Drawida. of a distinct variety, is one of the common 

 worms of Bombay City and neighbourhood ; the genus is otherwise almost confined 

 to the South and to the E. Himalayas. 



