Description
Medium: Pencil & watercolour illustration.
Summary: Illustration of a Giant Gippsland Earthworm, Megascolides australis, by Arthur Bartholomew, 1873, for Plate 7 in The Prodromus of the Zoology of Victoria by Frederick McCoy. In the original description of the giant earthworm from South Gippsland, McCoy made the common error of assuming that the conical burrows of land crayfish were the surface casts of this earthworm, however, the Giant Gippsland Earthworm leaves its casts below ground. The species, which has declined in its distributional range, is protected in Victoria, and was the first invertebrate to be listed as Vulnerable under Commonwealth legislation.
This illustration forms part of the much larger Prodromus Collection. Many of the original illustrations in the collection informed the production of the two volume work 'The Prodromus of the Zoology of Victoria', Museum Victoria's first major publication commencing in 1878.
Physical description: Giant Gippsland Earthworm, Megascolides australis, by Arthur Bartholomew. Drawing, pencil, watercolour and ink on paper, 3rd Oct 1873, 17cm x 26cm. Drawing for Plate 7 in The Prodromus of the Zoology of Victoria by Frederick McCoy.
Image Licence
Attribution 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)
Image Credit
Image source Museums Victoria
Location
Gippsland, Victoria, Australia
Country
Australia
Medium
Watercolour
Tags
Category
Flora & Fauna