962 NOTES ON AUSTRALIAN EARTHWORMS, 



sacs, could not be determined. Attached to the anterior mesentery 

 of x on either side of and slightly below the intestine were two 

 smooth bodies looking like a third pair of testes, but probably only 

 encysted parasites, though microscopic examination yielded nothing 

 satisfactory. In other worms I have sometimes met with a 

 similar pair of bodies on the anterior mesentery of xiv. 



There are transverse hearts in vn to xiii, very large in xi and xil. 



The segmental organs consist of pairs of transversely disposed 

 coiled tubes, smaller and less conspicuous after about segment xviii. 



Bab. — Barron River District near Cairns, N. Queensland 

 (Macleay Museum). 



Obs. —This species is readily distinguishable from the other two 

 (P. austrina and P. gracilis), which have three pairs of sperma- 

 thecoe, by the anterior dorsal grooving, and by the absence of 

 accessory copulatory organs. 



16. Perich^eta Queenslandica, n. sp. 



(Plate XIII, fig. 6). 



The largestof six specimens comprising about 1 20 segments gave the 

 following measurements : — Length 15 cm., breadth 7 mm., length of 

 the pre-clitellar region 26 mm. Body cylindrical, tapering anteriorly 

 and posteriorly, the ventral surface for a few segments just behind 

 the clitellum somewhat flattened. Prostomium not well shown ; 

 apparently small, grooved anteriorly and superiorly, and extending 

 on to the buccal ring for only a short distance — less than J. The 

 segments are relatively wide and flat, widest from about iy to xin : 

 in the middle of each segment is a conspicuous transverse ridge 

 carrying the numerous setse ; two furrows one in front of and the 

 other just behind the ridges divide the segments into three annuli, 

 but in addition the first and last of them may show more or less 

 complete further sub-division into two, so that in such eases the 

 segments shew five annuli. 



Clitellum thick and well-developed, comprising three segments — 

 xiv to xvi, complete all round ; a small elliptical depression on the 

 ventral surface of xiv on which are placed the two apertures of the 

 oviducts ; the setae on the clitellar segments are discernible. 



