Author: Gustav Eisen

Publisher:

Published: 2015-08-04

Total Pages: 214

ISBN-13: 9781332124169

Excerpt from Enchytraeidae of the West Coast of North America With the permission of Mr. E. H. Harriman I have included descriptions of all the above collections in the present paper, which thus becomes much more valuable and exhaustive. The number of species found within a really limited territory will probably prove a surprise to students of this group of animals; and it must be remembered that none of those who contributed the collections made a specialty of this group. A few specimens were collected here and others there, every collector having some other special branch to look after. Still the result is most gratifying, as the forty six new species increase the total from 128 to 174. While the specimens from Alaska have all been carefully gone over and all the species described, the same cannot be said of other specimens in my collection. Owing to unforeseen circumstances this paper had to be brought to a speedy close and many species had to be left out which undoubtedly would have proved to be new. I have yet in my possession some fifty or more new species collected on the Pacific Coasts by myself, and by Dr. Stuxberg during the Vega Expedition, but time does not allow me to describe them now. My object in mentioning this fact is merely to show the great number of species on the Pacific coast and in the arctic and subarctic zones generally. Nearly every new locality is found to possess new and distinct species, which seem to be much more restricted in their habitat than is the case in Europe. The isolation of species in California is undoubtedly due to the lesser rainfall on this part of the coast, which has prevented the species from rapidly spreading. In the north, along the Alaska coast, Enchytraeidae seem to occur in countless numbers, favorable localities being found everywhere. But the further south we go the scarcer become the species and the higher must we go in the mountains in order to find any at all. Compared with the north, Enchytraeidae in California are exceedingly scarce, and even during the rainy season we may hunt for several days in apparently favorable localities without finding any. Even in the Sierra Nevada species of this family are comparatively rare. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."