BRITISH ANNELIDS.
173
species, which it has been possible to analyse carefully, a definite
title. The name now before us has been in use for half a century,
but it was lost during the dark middle ages of this century, and has
only now begun to resume its rightful position. It is somewhat
difficult for anyone but an expert to distinguish this species from the
foregoing. They are very closely related, but in England at least,
whatever may be the case on the Continent, they are capable of being
treated as distinct species. The Trapeze Worm is larger than its
fellow, the shape is somewhat different, the number of segments
usually greater, and the puberty band extends, even in the case of the
not yet mature worm, over three consecutive segments, namely, 31,
32, 33. A slimy mucus is exuded as in the case of the Turgid Worm,
but there is seldom, if ever, a solid substance deposited. It is fre-
quently found mixed up with the last, and in fact with any or all of
the foregoing.
My Essex specimens are from Bush Wood, Debden Slade, Epping
Forest, and Plaistow. The only other worm which is at present
known to belong to this group in Great Britain is the Welsh Worm
(A. cambrica, Friend), which has some of the characters of the Green
Worm, along with others of the Mucous Worm. I include it for the
guidance of collectors in the table following, though it has not, up till
the present, reached me from Essex.
This is the most complete account that has yet been published
of this group, and I should like my next instalment to be equally
full. This, however, cannot be, unless several members residing in
the country will examine fallen trees, decaying timber, old leaf
manure, and other vegetable debris, and send me the results. There
are half-a-dozen species of worms belonging to the Dendrobaenic
group, and as several of them have been sent to me in large quan-
tities from Norfolk and Sussex, the bulk of them, if not all, will occur
in Essex. Living worms should be sent in tin boxes with soft moss,
not tightly packed, but sufficiently well filled to keep the worms from
being damaged in transit, and addressed 4, The Grove, Idle,
Bradford.
[For Tabular view of the Mucida group of Allolobophora see the
following page.]