240
BRITISH ANNELIDS.
studied in order to understand the position and appearance of this
important organ.
The girdle, which has been variously called the "clitellum,"
"cingulum," or "knob," is that swollen portion of the body, usually
of a lighter colour, which one observes in adult worms, and which
when I was a boy in Sussex was declared by the country folk to
represent the place where two portions of a worm had joined up
after having been bisected under the gardener's spade ! It is usually
saddle shaped in our native species, and in the channel which it
forms on the under surface of the body we may find a series of pores,
and at times a number of beautiful trumpet-shaped bodies which are
known as spermatophores, and play an important part in the repro-
duction of the species. I have found the Greenworm the best species
for many of these researches, and as it is to be obtained under stones
wherever cattle are kept, or by the side of stagnant water, it will be
a convenient subject for the beginner to practise upon.
It is a good plan to have a note-book in which to make entries on
the following plan :—
"Species taken at Romford, January, 1892.
" 1. A specimen found by the side of a pond where cattle corne
to water, lying under the stones in a coil, and appearing very sluggish.
Dirty green colour with a yellowish girdle about the middle of the
body. Length about two inches. The lip only partially bisecting
the first ring. Male pores on segment fifteen with prominent, pale
papillae. Girdle commencing on segment twenty-eight, and extending
to the thirty-sixth, with three pairs of pores on the under side on seg-
ments 31, 33 and 35. Tail curled up, cylindrical or round, tapering
off rather abruptly."
" 2. A small worm from the roots of grass by the side of the stream,
Dull brown, with lighter girdle and square tail. Only an inch long,
and unlike the last, very active ; chiefly moving tail foremost. Lip
partly cutting the peristomium, male pore on segment 13, and girdle
extending from the 22nd to the 27th."
These will be the Greenworm and the Square-tail (Allurus)
respectively, and all the others should be worked up on the same
principle.
It remains for me now to describe in successive issues of the
Essex Naturalist the species of Earthworm which I have already
received from Essex, with such others as shall by the courtesy of the
reader be submitted to me for identification and registration. I shall