BY J. J. FLETCHER, M.A., B.SC. 949 



On the median ventral surface of xi and of xii in all the 

 specimens which have any indication of a clitellum there is a 

 swollen nearly rectangular area, about as wide as the interval 

 between the innermost rows of setae, that on XI occupying the 

 whole breadth of the segment, that on xii only the breadth of 

 the first and second annuli; probably functioning as adhesive organs. 



The alimentary canal comprises a muscular pharnyx coated 

 superiorly with a white glandular substance, extending back as far 

 as about iv : a short oesophagus leading to the first globular gizzard 

 in v ; asecond and similar gizzard in vi, the first complete mesentery 

 intervening between them ; a small intestine extending from vn to 

 xvi, of which the piece in vn is narrow, in the rest of its course 

 vascular and with the interseptal portions more or less dilated, but 

 without any special diverticula; and a large intestine commencing 

 in xvn, unprovided with caeca. In each of the gizzard-segments 

 is a pair of stalked arborescent organs ; the masses of glandular 

 tufts lie in front of the first and second complete mesenteries 

 respectively ; the ducts of the anterior pair run forward and enter 

 the pharnyx, much as Beddard has described in Acanthodrilus 

 multiporus (1) ; they are probably salivary glands, but whether the 

 second pair are also, or what their relations may be, the few small 

 specimens available for dissection till now have not enabled me to 

 determine. 



Six mesenteries from the second one behind the posterior gizzard 

 to the posterior one of xii are thicker than elsewhere, and have 

 interseptal ligaments. 



The genitalia comprise, two pairs of white racemose testes 

 in ix and xii, and not in x and xi as in D. lumbricoides, the 

 anterior pair attached to the posterior mesentery of ix, the 

 posterior pair to the anterior mesentery of xii, the testes of 

 each pair independent of each other (2) ; two pairs of ciliated 

 rosettes or vas deferens funnels in x and xi, the posterior portions 



(1) P. Z. S. 1885 p. 817. 



(2) The bodies alluded to here and elsewhere in this paperas testes, appear 

 to be different from the vesicuke seminales of Lumbricus. The determina- 

 tion of their true character, however, requires special investigation, and I 

 leave it for future consideration. 



