Mr Frank E. Beddard on Earthworms. 
161 
1 887.] 
of this species, which he termed Urochceta, but he altered the 
specific name of Muller into “ hystrix .” Two years later M. Perrier 
published * a much more detailed and beautifully illustrated memoir 
upon the same species, which he referred to more correctly under 
the name of Urockceta corethrura. The specimens investigated by 
Perrier were obtained, not only from Brazil, but also from the West 
Indies (Martinique), and, which is more remarkable, from the 
island of Java. Perrier is inclined to think that the occurrence 
of the same species in the New World and in Java is rather to 
be explained by its accidental importation into the latter country, 
than to be regarded as of importance as a fact in geographical 
disposition. The occurrence, however, of a very closely allied 
species in the neighbouring island of Sumatra is somewhat against 
the supposition, and I am not at all certain that the species to be 
described in the present paper — a native of Australia — is really 
different from Urochceta dubia. 
A second species of the genus has been quite lately described by 
Dr Horst, f under the name of Urochceta dubia , from Sumatra. 
Dr Horst’s description is necessarily — owing to the poor condition 
of his material — brief, and only refers to the more important 
points. 
The differences between Urochceta dubia and U. corethrurus are 
chiefly in the position of the spermathecae (situated in segments 
6, 7, 8, instead of 8, 9, 10) and in the fact that there are four 
pairs of modified clitellar setae, a pair upon each of the segments 
18, 19, 20, 21, instead of the single pair (on segment 20) of 
U. corethrurus. It appears also that in Horst’s species all the 
segments anterior to the clitellum are furnished with setae, while in 
U. corethrura the first three segments are devoid of these structures; 
furthermore, the irregularity in the arrangement of the setae begins 
to be evident in segment 10 in U. dubia , and not until segment 14 
in U. corethrurus. 
The clitellum is very readily to be made out with specimens 
of the Australian Urochceta , and occupies about eight segments, 
commencing with the 14th and ending with the 22nd. Very 
often the first and last of these segments were only partially 
* Arch, de Zool. Exp., t. iii. (1874). 
t Midden Sumatra, Vermes door Dr R. Horst, p. 7. 
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