6 ON THE ANATOMY OF MEGASCOLIDES AUSTRALIS, 
The burrows of the large worm measure 3-1 in. in diameter, and in disused ones 
are often found (1) casts of the worms, or rather, what are probably the earthy 
contents of the alimentary canal, with clear indications marked upon them of the 
segments of the body, and (2) more rarely cocoons. The latter measure 14-2 in. in 
length, vary from light yellow to dark brown in colour according to their age, and 
contain only one embryo each, which I have at present only been aoe to obtain in a 
somewhat highly developed state. 
The cocoon itself is somewhat thin, and made of a tough leathery material, with 
a very distinct stalk-like process at each end; it contains a milky fluid closely 
similar to that found in the body cavity of the worm. 
I hope soon to be able to increase the number of my stock of worm embryos, and 
to be able to work out in detail its development. 
It is interesting to note the fact that at the present time we know of three 
especially large kinds of earth-worms ; that of these, one comes from South Africa, 
another from the southern parts of India and Ceylon, and the third from the South 
of Australia. We know as yet little about the distribution of earth-worms, but the 
same laws which governed the distribution of other animals must also have governed 
theirs, and it is just possible that these great earth-worms may be the lingering relics 
of a once widely-spread race of larger earth-worms, whose representatives at the 
present day are only found, as occurs with other forms of life, in the southern parts 
of the large land masses of the earth’s surface. Possibly careful search will reveal 
the existence of a large earth-worm in the southern parts of South America. 
ANATOMY. 
1.—External Anatomy. The worm certainly deserves its name of the “Giant 
EKarth-worm.” Large earth-worms have been described by Brnuam, from South 
Africa, and Brpparp from Ceylon, but this one from Gippsland seems to be the 
largest yet described. When dead the body is capable of great extension ; but the 
largest living one (measured by Professor McCoy) had a length of 6 feet. I have 
taken numerous worms direct from the burrow, and the longest one measured 56 in 
when alive; the average length being 44—48 in. and the breadth ? in. 
The following description of the external anatomy agrees in all important points 
with that already given by Mr. Fiutcumr.* 
The segments in the sexually mature worm vary from 300-500, or perhaps even 
more in number. When fully expanded, the anterior end of a large worm has the 
size and form represented in Figure 1, plate 1, seen from the ventral surface. The body 
tapers somewhat towards the first segment, broadening out till the eighth, then 
becoming narrower to the twelfth, then broadening again till the nineteenth, and then _ 
* Proc. Linn. Soc., N.S.W., 1887, p. 603. The worm is described under the name of Notoscolex 
g-ppslandicus. 
