BY J. J. FLETCHER, M.A., B.SC. 543 



xi and xn respectively, slightly above, and to one side of tli3 

 intestine, then arching over the latter they touch in the median 

 dorsal line. Each pair, of which the posterior are sometimes 

 the larger, lie in their own segment. Under the microscope 

 portions of all these four pairs of bodies shewed in my specimens 

 an abundance of various stages of parasites — Gregarines and 

 Angitillula-ttke Nematoids — with a small quantity of spermatozoa 

 in various stages of development. 



Smaller worms from Wagga Wagga, Guntawang, and Sydney, 

 but with well developed clitella show the same arrangement in a 

 more marked degree, the two bodies of each pair in segments 

 XI and xn, attached to the mesenteries a little above and to one 

 side of, the intestine, being relatively so much smaller as to show 

 at a glance their complete independence of each other, and of the 

 " ciliated rosettes." The two anterior pairs were about as usual. 

 Two worms with only rudimentary clitella shewed no perceptible 

 difference. All these worms also were collected in winter ; what 

 changes may take place in the disposition of these organs 

 when the worms are sexually active, I hope to find out in the 

 ensuing spring, from the examination of a series of animals. 

 The arrangement I have described is remarkable, and different 

 from that of Lumbricus ayricola and other European species, 

 which have two pairs of seminal reservoirs in segments x and 

 xi, those of the anterior pair bilobed and the posterior pair 

 unilobed (1), the two pairs originating in immature worms 

 as six small vascular outgrowths of three of the septa, 

 arranged in three pairs, of which the two anterior pairs coalesce to 

 form the bilobed mass met with in mature worms. 



The two pairs of " ciliated rosettes " — or anterior dilated 

 extremities of the vasa deferentia, — lie on the floor of segments x 

 and xi, just in front of the posterior mesenteries of these segments. 

 The first pair of " rosettes " thus lie below, and in the same 

 segment as the second pair of bodies above-mentioned, and, 



(1) Bloomfield, Q. J. M. S. 1880. 

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