Smith. — Notes on New Zealand Earthivorms. 123 



reproductive organs of this species is, that the testes and 

 ovaries, instead of being situated on the anterior wall of their 

 respective segments, are placed upon the posterior wall in close 

 proximity to the funnels. 1 should have been disposed to re- 

 gard this arrangement as abnormal had it not been for the 

 fact that it occurred in all of the two or three specimens 

 studied by me. The vesiculce scminales of this species are like 

 those of other Acanthodrili in their racemose character, and 

 in the fact that they do not envelope the funnels of the vasa 

 deferentia. It may easily be seen in longitudinal sections of 

 the worm that the vesiculae, although so different in outward ap- 

 pearance from those of Lumbricus, only differ in being branched 

 instead of simple outgrowths of the septa. The atria, as is 

 always the case with Acanthodrilus, are two pairs situated in 

 the seventeenth and nineteenth segments. The vasa deferentia, 

 as also appears to be the rule in this genus, open quite inde- 

 pendently of the atria upon the eighteenth segment. The two 

 vasa deferentia unite just before their external orifice ( g ) , which 

 is situated just on the boundary-line between the seventeenth 

 and eighteenth segments ; the pores are also situated in a groove 

 which connects the two atrial pores of each side, and the pre- 

 sence of which is highly characteristic of the genus Acantho- 

 drilus, as also of Deinodrilus. The two vasa deferentia run 

 side by side, and obliquely, through the muscular layers of the 

 integument to the external pores, crossing on their way the 

 duct of the atrium of the seventeenth segment. In longitudinal 

 sections I traced the vasa deferentia back to the thirteenth seg- 

 ment, running in the longitudinal muscular layer, and at some 

 distance from the surface, nearly midway between the two sur- 

 faces of the longitudinal muscular layer ; after this they gradu- 

 ally approach the peritoneal face of the muscular layer, and for 

 the last portion of their course were imbedded in the peritoneum . 

 I am not aware that in any other earthworm the vasa defe- 

 rentia are known to run deep within the longitudinal muscular 

 layer. As in A. multiporus, there appear to be no penial setae. 

 The ovaries are upon the posterior septum of the thirteenth 

 segment, and are actually in contact with the funnel of the 

 oviduct. The oviducts traverse the septum which separates 

 segments xiii. and xiv. ; the funnels are in the thirteenth seg- 

 ment. The spermatheca are present to the number of two 

 pairs, and are situated in segments viii. and ix. They are elon- 

 gated narrow pouches, and each is furnished with two pairs of 

 minute diverticula. 



' " Vascular System. — The dorsal vessel is double through- 

 out, as in A. multiporus ; the transverse hearts are especially 

 conspicuous in the tenth, eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth 

 segments ; the vascular trunks are, indeed, indistinguishable 

 from those of A. multiporus, with which species the present 



