462 Illinois State Laboratory of Natural History. 



nephridium in the somite next following, with the nephridio- 

 pore a little anterior to the ventral seta-. On the duct, a 

 short distance posterior to the funnel, is a compact glandular 

 mass through which ramify minute ductules that seem to be 

 branches of the main duct. A considerable part of the coiled 

 region of the nephridium is in close relation to the dorsal 

 part of the ventral vessel. 



The arrangement of the nephridia is an unusual one, or, at 

 least, different from that ordinarily assumed to exist in the 

 Lumbr'icul'uhe. In one of the sectioned specimens there are 

 no nephridia anterior to XIY, while in the other two there 

 are nephridia in VI-VIII but none in the following somites 

 anterior to XII, the first nephridiopores posterior to the 

 reproductive organs being in XII. In each of the two indi- 

 viduals having nephridia anterior to the reproductive organs 

 there is but one pair so situated, and the funnels of these 

 nephridia are in Y, the nephridiopores in YI, and the main 

 masses of the organs extend along the dorsal side of the 

 ventral vessel into VII and VIII. Posterior to the clitellum 

 there is ordinarily but one nephridium in each somite, — an 

 examination of over a hundred somites affording but two 

 exceptions to this rule, — and the more common arrangement 

 is one in which there is on each side of the body, alternately, 

 a single nephridium in each of several successive somites. 



In the three specimens studied there is but one pair of 

 testes in each, and these are borne on the posterior face of 

 septum VIII/IX ; but since there is a pair of spermiducal 

 funnels in VIII as well as in IX, it seems probable that there 

 has also been at some time a pair of testes in VIII. 



The spermiducal apparatus is quite complex and somewhat 

 similar to that of Eclipidrilus and Mesoporotlr'tlit* (Eisen, 

 '95, pp. 87-89 ; Smith '96, pp. 404, 405). It will perhaps 

 be advantageous to mention briefly the principal structures 

 composing it before giving a detailed description. As already 

 stated, there are two pairs of spermiducal funnels, one on the 

 posterior septum of VIII and the other similarly situated in 

 IX (PI. XLL, Fig. 1). The two sperm-ducts of either side 

 extend backward to the posterior part of X or to the anterior 



