96 
SPOLIA ZEYLANICA. 
ON A NEW MEGA SCOLEX FROM CEYLON. 
By Dr. W. Michaelsen (Hamburg). . 
(With figures in the text.) 
GOME time ago Dr. Willey, Director of the Colombo Museum, 
sent me a small lot of earthworms of small size “ character¬ 
ized by abundant milk-white ccelomic fluid which shows through 
the body-wall during life, and when the worms are placed in spirit 
issues from the dorsal pores as a flocculent precipitate.” 
As the earthworm fauna of Ceylon belongs to the best known of 
the tropics, I was surprised at seeing that these worms represented 
a new species. This circumstance gives a new indication of the 
richness of the Oligochaet fauna of Ceylon, and of our being far from 
a complete knowledge of the latter. 
The new species belongs to the most interesting group of 
Megascolex, which forms a transition to the nearly allied genus 
Notoscolex. 
Megascolex Willeyi, n. sp. 
Habitat.— Ceylon; found in damp situations in low-country 
forests near Dalle (Buonavista Hill) and in the Hatnapura District 
(Labugama), &c. 
External Characters. —Dimensions of mature specimens :—Length 
40-55 mm. Greatest thickness (behind the clitellum) 2 mm. 
Number of segments about 140, both in smaller and in larger 
specimens. Colour of spirit specimens yellowish gray ; clitellum 
brownish gray ; the colour of the living animals is chiefly white ; 
it is the white earthworm of Ceylon, and one of the few species which 
is instantly recognizable and can never be mistaken for any other 
in the same country. 
Systematic Description. —Head epilobous (J). Hinder appendix 
of prostomium nearly square, open behind, separated from the 
prostomium by a slight transverse furrow. 
The setae are slightly enlarged at the ends of the body, the ventral 
setae to a somewhat greater extent than the dorsal setae ; their 
number is 8 at each segment of the anterior part of the body, begin- 
ningwith the second; in the other parts of the body, nearly without 
exception, there are 12 setae at each segment. Only once I found 8 
setae on one side of a segment and 6, as is usual, on the other side, 
making 14 in all. 
