CHINESE EARTHWORMS — GATES 505 



are said to be "very evident after the worm has been killed" (p. 1), 

 or "conspicuous slits" (p. 7) must be apertures of copulatory cham- 

 bers or openings into parietal invaginations. These structures indi- 

 cate that the "common Soochow worm" is probably not P. hupeiensiSy 

 a probability that becomes a certainty with the absence of septa 

 8/9-9/10. The variation in the number of spermathecal pores may 

 be taken as an indication that the "Soochow worm" is possibly at 

 least three distinct species, none of which can be referred to hupeiensis. 

 Two other points may be mentioned in connection with the paper by 

 Gee, Boring, and Wu: (1) "In the Soochow Perichaeta the ventral 

 vessel is double at the anterior end, from the posterior edge of the 

 gizzard forward" (p. 5). Anterior to 10/11 the ventral blood 

 vessel is often very slender, while the ventrolaterals (lateral esopha- 

 geals) are large, distended with blood. These larger vessels have 

 almost certainly been mistaken for bifurcations of the ventral trunk. 

 (2) "A small species of Lumhricus also occurs in China and furnishes 

 some interesting comparisons with the Perichaeta^'' (p. 4). Careful 

 search of the literature has failed to reveal any record of the occur- 

 rence of Lumhricus in China. Presumably the generic name Lum- 

 hricus has been used as a convenient designation for any sort of a 

 lumbricid worm. It is very unfortunate that Prof. Frank Smith's 

 (1924) remarks on textbook earthworms versus real earthworms and 

 Stephenson's comments on "the earthworm" and "the common earth- 

 worm" (1930, pp. x-xi) were not published where they would have 

 commanded wider attention from zoologists. 



PHERETIMA species, 4 



1930. Pheretima otscuritopora Chen, S'ci. Rep. Nat. Centr. Univ. Nanking, ser. 

 B, vol. 1. p. 28. 



P. ohscuritopora was erected by Chen for immature specimens on 

 which no trace of clitellar glandularity was visible. So far as can 

 be determined from the description, the types are not sufficiently de- 

 veloped to enable recognition of the specific characteristics. The 

 spermathecae (see Chen's fig. 10, p. 36) certainly do not appear to 

 have attained their definitive conformations. The condition figured 

 is more or less closely approximated by very rudimentary sperm- 

 athecae of aclitellate specimens of P. tschilie'nsis. The "very small 

 crescent shaped groove" can be interpreted as an early rudiment of 

 the type of male pore invagination that characterizes P. tschiliensis. 

 The types of P. ohscuritopora were collected from the same localities 

 as P. hiangsuensis (= P. tschiliensis) and may, quite possibly, be 

 merely immature forms of that species. 



Chen's Szechwan specimens of P. ohscuritopora (see Chen, 1931) 

 may or may not be conspecific with the Nanking and Soochow 

 specimens. 



