The Oligochgeta of the Forth Area. 109 



XV. The Oligochaeta (Earthworms and their Allies) of the Forth 

 Area. By William Evans, F.R.S.E. 



(Read 28th March 1910. Received 13th April 1910.) 



The investigation of the Oligochaete Fauna of Scotland has still to be 

 undertaken. Only a few scattered records, apart from the short list presently 

 to be mentioned, exist for any of the areas. In the Handbook of the Fauna 

 and Flora of " Clyde," published in 1901, the Oligochasta are not represented ; 

 and, as I have shown in my recent review 1 of our knowledge of the Fauna 

 of the " Forth " area, no list has hitherto been published for this district 

 either. The records contained in the present contribution are the result of 

 a certain amount of intermittent attention I have given to the group in 

 Forth during the past five or six years. Except in the case of the 

 Lumbricidse — the typical Earthworms — the catalogue must, I am well aware, 

 be very incomplete ; but I hope to add to it from time to time, and in any 

 case it may serve as a basis for a fuller one. 



When I first became interested in the Oligochretes Mr F. E. Beddard, 

 whose tables in the second volume of the " Cambridge Natural History " 

 (pp. 390, 391) I was working with, kindly examined some for me, as did 

 also the Eev. Hilderic Friend, to whom a number of collections of 

 Lumbricids from various parts of the district have since been submitted. 

 Mr Friend is well-known as an expert on the British Earthworms. Here 

 progress might have ceased had not Mr R. Southern, of the Dublin Museum, 

 taken up the study of the Enchytrseidse of the British Isles, and, being 

 desirous to know what species occurred in Scotland, willingly examined 

 such material as I was able to send him in the living state. 2 The results 

 are embodied in his valuable " Contributions towards a Monograph of the 

 British and Irish Oligochaeta," 3 published last year. Of other records there 

 are exceedingly few — practically only one or two of aquatic forms in Sir 

 John Dalyeli's works. These are mentioned under the species to which 

 they refer. 



The number of forms recorded in the present catalogue is 47 inclusive of 

 two varieties or sub-species, but excluding an exotic species living in hothouses. 4 

 Ten belong to the aquatic families, 17 are Enchytrseids (small, mostly 



1 Proc. Roy. Phys. Soc, vol. xvii. pp. 29-31. 



2 Mr Southern considers it very unsafe to name preserved Micro-Oligochaeta, of which 

 I have a considerable number, and probably he is right. 



3 Proc Roy. Irish Acad., vol. xxvii., sect. B, No. 8 (pp. 119-182, pis. vii.-xi.), April 1909. 



4 Search for exotic species in the Botanic and other gardens has not been made, as 

 however interesting in themselves they form no part of our fauna. 



VOL. XVIII. I 



