OCR Text |
Show 1896.] FROM THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. 195 to the genus Perichceta. I am much indebted to Dr. Sharp, and also to Mr. Perkins for his careful preservation of the specimens. Our knowdedge of the Earthworms of the Hawaiian Archipelago is at the present time exceedingly limited : four species form the entire list; and of these Perichceta corticis of Kinberg l, though undoubtedly a Perichceta, or at least a Perichaetid, is quite unrecognizable as a species, while Hypogceon havaicum of the same naturalist is believed by Rosa2 to be merely Allolobophora putris, a widely spread species which has been " introduced" into many extra-European countries. Two species, however, which have been sufficiently described for identification, appear to be peculiar to the Sandwich Islands. The first of these was made known by Dr. Rosa3, and fully described from material existing in the Vienna Museum, as Perichceta hawayana. The second, which is not perhaps so certainly a distinct species, I have myself described under the name of Pontoscolex hawaiensis in m y recently published * Monograph of the Order Oligochaeta' (p. 660). In the present communication I have three new Hawaiian species to add to this list; and I have also to record the occurrence in those islands of a few widely distributed forms. The entire list of Earthworms now known from the Hawaiian Archipelago, excluding only the unintelligible Perichceta corticis, is as follows-the species peculiar to the islands being printed in Clarendon type:- Fam. LIJMBRICID^;. (1) Allolobopjhora fcetida. (2) Allolobophora putris. (3) Allolobophora caliginosa. Earn. PERICHJETID^E. (4) Perichceta inclica. (5) Perichaeta hawayana. (6) Perichaeta perkinsi. (7) Perichaeta molokaiensis. (8) Perichaeta sandvicensis. Earn. GEOSCOLICTDJE. (9) Pontoscolex hawaiensis. This will appear to many to be a meagre enough list, especially when contrasted with the rich and peculiar insect, molluscan, and avian fauna of the same islands. But it is a long list when compared with those of the Earthworms of other oceanic islands, from very few of which have undoubtedly indigenous forms been secured. 1 " Annulata nova," Ofv. K. Svensk. Vet.-Akad. 1866. 2 " Revisione dei Lumbrici," Mem. Ace. Torino, 1893. 3 Ann. d. k. k. Hofmus. Wien, Bd. vi. 13* |