OCR Text |
Show 1894.] ON TWO NEW GENERA OF EARTHWORMS. 379 LlTEARIA PHALLOIDES (Pallas). A single specimen of this, labelled " Dutch Bay, Ceylon," was sent along with the Cavernularia just described. It presented no features of special interest, and differed from other specimens which have already passed through my hands (Marshall and Fowler, " Pennatulida of the Mergui Archipelago," Journ. Linn. Soc, Zool. xxi.) only in the point that the siphonozooids practically filled all the space between the autozooids, instead of forming rings round them. A plane of bilateral symmetry, mentioned in the paper quoted, was also indicated here. The specimen, as so often happens with Pennatulids, had been apparently truncated above and scarred over; a new autozooid and several siphonozooids had been formed on the scar. EXPLANATION OF PLATE XXII. Fig. 1. Cavernularia malabarica, sp. n.; view of the colony. Fig. 2. Surface of the ccenosarc, showing the siphonozooids filling up the space between the bases of three autozooids. Fig. 3. Spicules of the rhachis. Fig. 4. Spicules of the stalk. 3. On Two new Genera, comprising Three new Species, of Earthworms from Western Tropical Africa. By FRANK E. BEDDARD, M.A., F.R.S., Prosector to the Society. [Received April 2, 1894.] The specimens of worms now described I owe to the kindness of Mr. Alvan Millson, Assistant Colonial Secretary at Lagos, to whom I have frequently had to express m y indebtedness for material. Within the last few weeks I have received from him a number of tubes containing a large number of specimens of Earthworms, which proved to be referable to four species. Of these I only describe three in the present communication; the fourth was not new, but was found to be a particularly fine specimen of m y species Siphonogaster millsoni; this specimen I have sent to the Oxford Museum. The remaining species belong to the family Cryptodrilidae, which is not well represented on the African continent, so far as our present knowledge enables a judgment to be formed. The most characteristic family of Earthworms of the Ethiopian region are unquestionably the Eudrilidae, which are indeed limited to that continent, with the sole exception of the almost ubiquitous genus Eudrilus. So abundant are the members of this family that it is really a remarkable fact to receive a collection of Earthworms from that part of the world which does not include representatives of that family. Such, however, is the case with the collection upon which I report here. It may be noted, however, that the Cryptodrilidae are rather more abundant in |