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CONTRIBUTION TO A FURTHRR KNOWLEDGE OF 

 AUSTRALIAN OLIGOCH^ETA. 



Part ii. Description of a Tasmanian Phreodrilid. 



By E. J. Goddard, B.A., B.Sc., Linnean Macleay Fellow of 

 the Society in Zoology. 



The present paper deals with the description of specimens of 

 an immature worm obtained from small pools on the Mt. 

 Wellington plateau, Hobait, Tasmania. In January, the month 

 during which they were collected, the worms were abundant, 

 moving about in the fine sediment in the small pools. Like so 

 many of the aquatic Oligochseta, they are sexually mature at 

 certain seasons, and in the case of the present form I am inclined 

 to think that this condition is reached during the cold season of 

 the year. This period of sexual maturity is, perhaps, of some 

 interest in conjunction with the fact that the worm shows 

 characters which should suffice to include it among the Phreo- 

 drilidce, which family is so markedly Antarctic from a distribu- 

 tional standpoint. 



The mountain regions of Tasmania, judging from the knowledge 

 we possess of the habitats of the Phreodrilidce, should offer 

 special opportunities for the preservation of representatives of 

 that family; so much so, indeed, that one is by no means surprised 

 to learn of its occurrence in that island. No doubt further 

 search will reveal the distribution of representatives of the family 

 as being very wide in Tasmauia. 



The form under description may possibly represent a species 

 of Phreodrilus, if what I have described as the probable remains 

 of the spermathecal structures turn out eventually not to be such. 

 The size of the worm and the size and nature of the setae show a 

 great resemblance to Phreodrilus mauiensis. Otherwise the 

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