112 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



Most of my records, it will be seen, are for the months February to 

 April. This is accounted for chiefly by the fact that the majority of 

 worms are mature and in good condition for identification during the spring, 

 and also by the circumstance that at that season ploughing and gardening- 

 operations facilitate their collection. Mature examples may, however, 

 be found at other times of the year, winter included. Earthworms, so 

 far as I can make out, do not hibernate ; during frost they merely retire 

 deeper into the ground, but come up again as soon as the frost disappears. 

 What is the extent of a worm's life-time I am unable to say, and I do not 

 remember having seen any statement on the point. 



With regard to nomenclature, a matter, in which the Oligochseta have 

 had their full share of confusion, I have adhered to that employed by 

 Southern in his recent " Contributions," which, with one or two exceptions, 

 is the same as in Dr Michaelsen's volume on the " Oligochaeta " in Das 

 Tierreich (Lief. 10, 1900). The few synonyms added here and there are 

 mostly connected with references to the species as members of the British 

 fauna. For considerations explained in a paper on the Collembola of the 

 district, 1 I have given my records in some detail even in the case of 

 common species. 



Before proceeding to the systematic portion of the paper, I desire to 

 express my thanks to those specialists whose kind help I have already 

 referred to ; it is their stamp upon so many of the records that gives 

 them their value. I wish some resident zoologist accustomed to modern 

 methods of research would take up the study of the Micro-Oligochceta in 

 Scotland. In adding to the list, describing new species, and demolishing 

 spurious ones — of which I expect not a few will be detected when examples 

 from a wider range of localities and in more stages of development have 

 been examined — he will find much to reward his labour. 



Oidei- OLIGOCHAETA. 



Fam. .EOLOSOMATIDiE. 

 iEolosoma quaternarium, Ehrbg. 



When looking for rotifers in some wet moss which I sent him from a 

 ditch in Hopetoun woods in Dec. 1905, Mr James Murray detected an 

 /Eolosoma which I refer to this species. He described it as " orange-spotted 

 like hcmprichi, but head not exjDanded, and with seta? two or three times 

 diameter of body." JEolosomce are for the most part minute creatures from 

 1 to 2 mm. in length. 



1 Proc. A'"//. Phys. Soc, vol. xiv. p. 222, 18!)!). 



