110 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



whitish worms), and 20 are Lumbricids. Southern, in his paper mentioned 

 above, gives a list of the Oligochaeta then known to occur in the British 

 Isles, showing in parallel columns which of them had been recorded from 

 England, Scotland, Wales, Isle of Man, and Ireland. Of the 135 species 

 and varieties comprised in the list, 88 were recorded from England, Wales 

 and Isle of Man combined, 48 from Scotland, and 96 from Ireland. Adding 

 to the above 88 those in the Scottish list not recorded from south of the 

 Border, we get 103 from Great Britain against the 96 from Ireland. The 

 lesson conveyed by these figures is, of course, not that Ireland has a richer 

 Oligochsete fauna than the other regions, but that certain sections of the 

 group, the Enchytrseids in particular, have been more thoroughly investigated 

 there. The Scottish part of the table was made up mainly from my Forth 

 records, the preliminary list submitted to this Society in March 1909 having 

 been placed at Mr Southern's disposal for the purpose. Subsequent additions 

 bring the Scottish list only up to 55, so that if a zoologist trained in the 

 methods necessary for the investigation of the internal characters by which 

 so many of the Micro-Oligochseta are separated would take the matter up, 

 a large accession to the list would speedily be made. 



Kegarding the Lumbricidse — the only section which has been at all 

 adequately worked — there are, as has been mentioned, 20 forms now known 

 from Forth, being only 6 or 7, if we neglect a few unimportant varieties, 

 less than the total for the whole of the British Isles. Most of them are 

 common and widely-distributed both in these Islands and on the Continent. 

 Three, however — namely Helodrilus (Eopila) oculatus (assuming there is no 

 mistake in the determination), Eisenia alpina, and Eiseniella tetraedra var. 

 hercynia — are not otherwise known from this country, while the striking 

 Octolasium cyaneum is recorded for the first time from Scotland. There is 

 one species, Dendrobcena octaedra, which, contrary to expectation, I have 

 not yet detected here. Friend has recorded it from England and Paisley, 

 Southern finds it commonly in the north of Ireland, and abroad its range 

 extends from Portugal to Norway, Iceland, etc., so it should surely- occur in 

 some part of our area. 1 



In the choice of habitat 01igocha3tes, in common with other creatures, 

 have their likes and dislikes. " I have seen," writes Darwin in his book on 

 " Vegetable Mould and Earthworms " (1881 eel, p. 10), " worms in black 

 peat in a boggy field ; but they are extremely rare, or quite absent in the 

 drier, brown, fibrous peat, which is so much valued by gardeners." The 

 all but total absence of Earthworms from our peat moors has often come 



1 T have since (29th April) found it near Peebles in the adjoining " Tweed " area. 



