ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
415 
Atlantic, 101 in the Mediterranean, 8 in the Black Sea, 4 in the Japanese 
Seas, and 2 in the Red Sea. In addition to the 207 species which the 
author has reported from Dinard, 40 which he has not discovered have 
been seen by other writers. The author concludes this memoir with an 
exceedingly useful index to the forms described in this and his four 
preceding memoirs. 
Hew Earthworms from Central Australia.* — Prof. Baldwin Spencer, 
though not expecting to find many earthworms in Central Australia, 
had no idea that there would be so few, for previous experience had 
shown him that earthworms were to be found in the most unlikely spots. 
It is quite possible, indeed, that more than one species exists, but to 
secure them one would probably need to be on the spot immediately after 
a fall of rain. During the course of the Horn Expedition it was only 
on three occasions that very limited patches of damp black earth were 
met with. Though these spots were separated by wide tracts of country 
quite impassable to earthworms, yet in each one there is found only the 
single species, which is referable to the genus Acantliodrilus. The author 
has already, in the case of Mammals, as has Prof. Tate in the case of 
Mollusca, pointed out what a vast influence the change from a pluvial to 
a desiccating climate has had upon the early fauna of the central area ; 
the majority of the forms became extinct, whilst a certain number were 
preserved in sheltered and favourable places. As abundant forms of 
earthworms have not been introduced into this central area, it is scarcely 
likely that the rarest genus in Australia should be carried to three spots 
separated from one another, and from the rest of the Continent, by tracts 
absolutely impassable to earthworms. We are bound, therefore, to 
regard this species as the survivor of the old earthworm fauna, which 
almost entirely disappeared when, in post-Pliocene times, the climate 
changed, and the country gradually died up. It is clear that Acantho- 
drilus is a very ancient genus, and it is probable that, at an early period, 
it must have been the dominant one in that part of Australia from which 
the central area derived its earthworm fauna. The new species is called 
Eremius. 
New Earthworms.f — Mr. F. E. Beddard commences his memoir 
with an account of some earthworms from the Sandwich Islands. At 
the present time, our knowledge of the earthworms from these islands 
is exceedingly limited, as two only are known to be peculiar to them. 
In the present communication three new Hawaiian species are described, 
and nine in all are enumerated. Though a meagre enough list, it is 
long when compared with those of the earthworms of other oceanic 
islands, from very few of which undoubtedly indigenous forms have 
been secured. Peculiar types appear as a rule to be absent from oceanic 
islands. Three new species of PericTiseta are described from Hong 
Kong, Barbadoes, and Trinidad. With regard to the distribution of this 
genus, Mr. Beddard points out that it is truly tropical in its range, 
extending into all parts of the Oriental region. It is a dominant form, 
and always constitutes a large proportion of the gatherings of worms 
from such localities. It is also exceedingly abundant in some of the 
* Horn Scientific Expedition, pt. ii. (1896) pp. 416-20 (1 pi.). 
t Proc. Zool. Soc., 1896, pp. 194-211 (3 figs.). 
